Quality Folks 



Villiam Fornev Hovis 




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COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 



QUALITY FOLKS 



Quality Folks 



iJPrattital 
iPleHttattanct 



'By 
WILLIAM FORNEY HOVIS 



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Cincinnati : 
Press of Jennings and Graham 



UBHARYotCUNGHESSl 
Two' Copies Heceived 

DEC 3 1908 

I Copyr>fent Entn 



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Copyright, 1908, 
By William Forney Hovis 



CONTENTS 

Quality Folks, . 11 

Weight and Measure, 16 

Servants on Horses and Princes on 

Foot, 21 

The Banner Class, 25 

The Beauty OF Holiness, .... 29 

A Sweet-Smelling Savor, 34 

Untempered Mortar, 39 

The Simple Life, 45 

Unnumbered, SO 

Heat and Brilliancy, 56 

The Withered Hand, 62 

Pious in Spots, . 67 

Sunlight and Moonlight, .... 71 

Color-Blind, 75 

Making Faces, 80 

Weak Spots, 85 

5 



Contents 



Clean Dirt, 89 

The House by the Side of the Road, 94 

The Back Yard, 99 

Strayed Sheep, 104 

Theory and Practice, 108 

Holding Fast, 112 

Sour Grapes, 118 

Paying Back, 122 

Life Filled Full, 127 

The Fraternity of Sorrow, .... 131 

I Won't Do It, ....... 138 

Letting the Truth Slip, 142 

A Tree Planted by the Rivers of 

Waters, 146 

Good Conversation, 151 

The Day's Work, 156 

The Heart's Inclination, .... 160 

Puffed Up and Built Up, .... 166 

Angels' Food, 171 

Crooked Ways, 175 

The Signs of an Apostle, . , • . 180 

Self-Mastery, 185 

6 



Contents 



The School of Experience, . . . 190 

A Blemished Offering, 195 

The Price of a Worthy Work, . . 200 

Made Over, 205 

Projected Efficiency, 210 

The Diet of the Soul, 216 

The Medicines of the Soul, . . . 222 

A Large Place, 227 

A Divided Heart, 233 

The Man of God, 238 

Work and Worship, 243 

Remembering One's Faults, .... 248 

Immortality, 254 

The Heart of Christmas, .... 262 

Gains and Losses, 266 



PREFACE 

I HAVE given these pages to the press in the 
hope that they might have a blessed ministry. 
Some of the sentiments are original, and some 
have been suggested by the written thought of 
others. No attempt has been made to be doc- 
trinal, nor even theological, except in a very 
practical sense. With no desire to disparage 
the value of the mystical in worship, I have 
sought to emphasize the fact that one's religion 
is his life and that the quality of one's deeds is 
the determinant of his essential value. 

The themes have not been selected with any 
idea of logical sequence, nor with any particular 
thought of inter-relation except that the pre- 
vailing purpose has been to quicken interest in 
the qualities of life which must be elemental in 

9 



Preface 

the divinest types of human character. The 
quotations at the beginning of each meditation 
have been selected with care from a wide field 
of literature, both as to time and character, and 
are designed to be suggestive of collateral read- 
ing. The number of chapters is not arbitrary, 
but, being fifty-two, naturally suggests a subject 
for consideration for every week in the year. 
The object of the volume is to furnish a lit- 
tle solid religious food so concentrated as to 
contain much strength in small compass. Each 
study may be read in a few minutes. On ac- 
count of the brevity of the composition the style 
is necessarily terse and epigrammatic. I shall 
be satisfied if the succeeding sentences are so 
provocative of thought as to cause the reader to 
write out in terms of his own experience the 
sermons of which these scattering phrases are 
only the bony framework. W. F. H. 

South Bend, Indiana, 1908. 



10 



QUALITY FOLKS 

** They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that 
day when I make up My jewels." — MaUchiiii, 17 » 

** Wealth is a weak anchor, and glory can not support a 
man; this is the law of God, that virtue only is firm, and 
can not be shaken by a tempest." — Pythagoras* 

** Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let 
the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man 
glory in his riches ; but let him that glorieth glory in this, 
that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord 
which exerciseth lovingkindness, judgment, and righteous- 
ness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the 
Lord." — Jeremiah ix, 23^24, 

"Wood bums because it has the proper stuff in it; and 
a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in 
him," — Goethe. 

"Quality Folks" are not necessarily those 
whose affluence would class them with ''the four 
hundred," nor yet those whose wisdom and su- 
perior endowments have enabled them to con- 
tribute something substantial to the world of 

II 



Quality Folks 



knowledge and history. With no wish to dis- 
parage the power of gold in the hand of Good- 
ness, and with no desire to detract by the merest 
trifle from the worth of learning, let us rather 
emphasize the thought that God's quality folks, 
whether rich or poor, wise or untutored, high 
or low, are those who love His law and who 
think upon His name. 

The world has a wrong way of estimating 
values. It calls the proud happy. It is de- 
luded by bulk and glitter. It is awed by exalted 
position. It lays too much stress upon quantity 
and not enough on quality; even the elements 
by which it determines quality are more usually 
accidental than intrinsic. Its judgment is poor 
because it deals too much with transitory things 
which are seen, and forgets that the things not 
seen are eternal. It fails to remember that the 
quality of life is determined by what it is, and 
not by what it has. It does not seem to under- 
stand that, while wealth and wisdom may be of 
great advantage to those who possess them, in 

12 



Quality Folks 



the long run they can not measure fortunes with 
faithfulness. 

God is exceedingly opulent; the heavenly 
Father has riches untold. He has an option on 
all the diamond mines in the universe, and He 
is busy gathering a remarkable collection of 
jewels. He is selecting His gems with great 
care ; He can not be deceived on value. Some- 
times He finds a precious stone in the rough 
which has to be polished before its full value is 
apparent. His treasures are human hearts. 
Good folks are God's folks, the kind He finally 
gathers to Himself and calls ''jewels." Real 
''quality folks" have hearts that are gems. 

The quality folks with whom God associates 
must be rich, but their treasure must be in 
heaven; they must be wise, but their wisdom 
must be unto salvation. God's best people are 
workers. They have endowments and are bid- 
den to occupy until the Master comes, and are 
cautioned not to misuse their talents in an at- 
tempt to use them. Where one's treasure is 

13 



Quality Folks 



there his heart will be, and to have a place In 
God's jewel-box means a soul-life with the 
virtues of a precious stone. 

If we knew as much about people as God 
does, we might change our minds about who 
are the quality folks of our town. We are 
liable to misjudge a man because he is rich or 
wise, or both. We put wrong estimates upon 
men's piety because we do not see nor hear 
them make their prayers. We are liable to as- 
sociate worship with words and outward atti- 
tude. The story is told of a little girl, left to 
take care of an invalid mother, who worked 
until her hands were out of shape with toil. 
One day, after their mother had gone, she was 
talking to her little sister about heaven and 
how the Savior surely expected His children to 
pray. She began to cry, for fear that because 
she had not had time to pray much she would 
not be permitted to enter. The younger child, 
with the insight of innocence, said, *'Show Jesus 
your hands, and maybe He will let you in." 

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Quality Folks 



What a fine interpretation of the heart of Love ! 
The little tot was right; her sister wore the 
badge of service, and her twisted hands were the 
marks of her apostleship. She was rich toward 
God. She had the quality of a jewel. It is 
concerning such souls that the good God says, 
"They shall be Mine in that day when I gather 
together My gems." Yes, to belong to God's 
quality folks one must be rich, but it is a wealth 
that the poorest may have. Heirs to the 
kingdom must achieve their possession through 
service. The determining quality of heaven's 
aristocracy is goodness. 



IS 



WEIGHT AND MEASURE 

** The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions 
are weighed," — / Samuel it, 3, 

** And I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and, behold, a man 
with a measuring line in his hand.** — Zechariah it, /• 

**How little do they see what is, who frame their hasty 
judgments upon that which seems." — Southey* 

*• If we do not weigh and consider to what end life is 
given us, and thereupon order and dispose it arightly, pre- 
tend what we will as to arithmetic, we do not, and can not 
number our days in the narrowest and most limited signifi- 
cation.'* — Clarenden. 

**The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on 
the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the 
heart.*' — / Samuel x^i, 7* 

In the prophecy of Isaiah the Lord declares 
that His ways are not man's ways, neither His 
thoughts man's thoughts ; but as the heavens are 
higher than the earth, so are His thoughts and 

i6 



Weight and Measure 



ways higher than man's. When the venerable 
Samuel was sent to look over the sons of Jesse 
and to select a king to reign in the place of Saul, 
he was struck by the natural nobleness and 
majesty of the appearance of Eliab and cried 
out, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before me;" 
but the Lord said: **No, you are mistaken; the 
Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh 
on the outward appearance, but God looketh on 
the heart," 

The study suggests a contrast between the 
ways of God and those of man. Man uses a 
yard-stick, and God a balance; man makes a 
quantitative, God a qualitative analysis. The 
one errs through lack of knowledge, the other 
knows the heart and weighs the actions. Man 
feels it necessary "to keep up appearances," 
sometimes even at the expense of honor; God 
"desireth truth in the inward parts" regardless 
of how the outside looks. The one measures 
greatness, the other weighs goodness. 

One of man's most glaring weaknesses is 
2 17 



Quality Folks 



that he is unduly attracted by show. He re- 
duces everything to figures. He deems one rich 
if he have so many dollars, so many acres of 
land, so many houses, so many reins of power; 
one is mighty by certain calculable spaces. He 
often makes the mistake of thinking that one's 
life consisteth in *'the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth;" he is liable to be dazed 
by the spectacular and deceived by tinsel. He 
drops the diamond because it is small, and 
snatches up the limestone because he can get it 
in big chunks. The man with a measuring- 
line estimates greatness by extent, capacity, vol- 
ume. To him a great city is one of vast spaces ; 
a great wall is one of massive proportions. The 
man with a balance must ever consider internal 
excellence. He is concerned not so much with 
the shape, and form, and size of the object as 
with its character, temper, worth. 

Man is interested in external dimensions 
largely because he is unable to see or know the 
inside. Opulence, wisdom, and exalted position 

i8 



Weight and Measure 



count with him. Wherever he is seen with his 
line he is calculating the superficial area, and if 
he should ever be found with a pair of scales 
he will be weighing by avoirdupois. His judg- 
ments, based on appearances, are often in error, 
because knowledge of the outside is hardly half- 
knowledge. It is only when he breaks through 
the surface into the inner mysteries that he 
thinks God's thoughts over after Him. When 
man comes out of some secret place of commun- 
ion with the Almighty and announces that he has 
seen something, he is called a discoverer, a 
prophet, or an inventor. 

God is interested in the intrinsic value of 
things. He asks not how great, but how good? 
His interest in the inside does not lessen His 
concern about the outside, but He puts first 
things first. He knows that it is only when the 
"King's daughter is all-glorious within" that 
''her clothing is of wrought-gold," and that 
he who seeks the kingdom of God first, will 
find other things added in due form and sea-* 

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Quality Folks 



son. He has full knowledge of all things and 
His judgments are, therefore, right. 

Man's real life is his heart-life. Before you 
can know him you must go back into the secret 
center of his being. Some people have the best 
side and some the worst side out. Before the 
worth of a life can be justly determined it must 
be known not only as it seems, but as it is. 
Quality of life is more important than quantity. 
God weighs actions. The vital question must 
ever be, Is thy heart right? Deeds are not 
measured as to number, extent, or size ; they are 
weighed. To fall below the standard is to be 
found wanting. To be full weight is to be fit 
to enter heaven. 



20 



SERVANTS ON HORSES AND 
PRINCES ON FOOT 

" I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking 
as servants upon the earth." — Ecctesia,stes x, 7. 

" From the lowest place, when virtuous things proceed, 
the place is dignified by the doer's deed." — Shakespeare* 

** A fine coat is but a livery when the person who wears 
it discovers no higher sense than that of a footman." — 
Addison, 

** Foolish men mistake transitory semblances for 
eternal facts, and go astray more and more." — Cartyte* 

*• Beware so long as you live of judging men by their 
outward appearances. * '—LaFonta.ine, 

The text Is a striking picture of a very com- 
mon truth. The author suggests that, though 
in the one instance the person posed as a prince, 
there was such an apparent incongruity between 
himself and his position, to his own disparage- 
ment, that It seemed evident that he was lifted 

21 



Quality Folks 



above his real worth. In the second case there 
was still a disagreement, but the value of the 
man was unbefogged by his position. There Is 
a sense in which the station makes the man, but 
more often the person makes the place. The 
mere fact that a servant rides a horse does not 
make him fit to be a prince, and the mishap that 
makes a monarch go on foot does not change 
his nature. A real prince is princely whether 
fortune permits him to ride or misfortune forces 
him to walk. 

Position is not always a criterion of worth. 
Policy and what is commonly known as **a pull" 
too often govern the selection of a man for a 
given place. Even with those in high authority 
favoritism is liable to count. The phenomenon 
of **servants on horses" is often seen in politics. 
It is necessary to know more about a man than 
that he is the president of a life insurance com- 
pany, a postmaster, or a senator, before one is 
justified in calling him a prince. 

What one is in character, motive, spirit, he 

22 



Servants on Horses and Princes on Foot 

IS in reality, whether he live in a king's palace 
or a peasant's hut. Circumstances may affect 
the appearance, but they do not necessarily 
change the quality. What happened to Job, the 
rich emir of the Bible drama, when he was 
smitten with such staggering loss, was only a 
change in his mode of life, and not a change of 
heart. Sitting upon an ash-pile bereft of family, 
robbed of flocks, loathsome with disease, and 
scorned by friends, he is still a prince. To melt 
gold is to change its form, but not its worth. 

It is more honorable to be a worthy man on 
foot than a fool on horseback. Cato, the elder, 
on being asked why he had no statue erected in 
his honor, replied that he would rather men 
should ask why he did not have a statue than 
why he had. If one have real worth, some- 
body will find it out whether he publish the 
fact or not. He who fills a low place well will 
be invited higher. It is better to be too large 
for a small place than too small for a large 
one. The mounted servant is in danger of be- 

23 



Quality Folks 



ing asked to surrender his seat, while the 
princely footman is sure to be promoted. 

Judge no man by appearances, for they 
sometimes lie. Transitory semblances do not 
always represent eternal facts. He who seeks 
for high position without regard to merit is a 
servant who wants to be a rider and to appear 
to be a prince. He has not learned the genius 
of greatness expressed in the Master^s word, 
"Whosoever would be chief among you, let him 
be a servant." It is always safe to take the 
lowest seat. A princely footman will always be 
asked to ride. A prince on foot is princely none 
the less; a servant on horseback is only a serv- 
ant still. 



24 



THE BANNER CLASS 

" Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee."— 
The Psaims Ix, 4. 

" Talent and worth are the only eternal grounds of dis- 
tinction. To these the Almighty has affixed His everlasting 
patent of nobility, and these are they which make the bright, 
immortal names to which our children, as well as others, 
may aspire." — Miss Sedg^oDtck. 

** Them that honor Me I will honor." — / Samuel ii, 30, 

"Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to 
talk of you as they please."— /^f^a^cra5. 

" Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will 
I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath 
known My name. He shall call upon Me and I will answer 
him; I will be with him in trouble ; I will deliver him and 
honor him." — The Word of God. 

Marks of distinction are not lightly es- 
teemed by anybody. Every ambitious student 
strives for the honors of his class. There is no 
delight quite equal to that of being the chosen 
one, whether the selection be made on the basis 

25 



Quality Folks 



of real merit or mere popularity. This Is true 
whether the recipient of favor be a child in a 
kindergarten-game chosen most often by her 
little companions, or a man elected by his fel- 
lows to a position of distinguished leadership. 
I never see a lot of children playing but that 
I pity the tots who wait so anxiously, but are 
never chosen once during the game, for the dis- 
appointment arising out of being a candidate 
for honors and failing to receive them is so keen. 
I knew a spelling-class once in a little red 
schoolhouse, where the members vied with one 
another for headmarks. All tried, but the con- 
test finally narrowed down to three. Why did 
two boys and one girl study these lessons until 
they could see them in their dreams ? Not par- 
ticularly because of the value of the prize, but 
because each coveted the distinction of winning, 
and being the hero of the class. I would n*t 
give much for a fellow who did n't try to be an 
honor-man. It is right for any one to strive 
for the mastery If he strive lawfully. 

26 



The Banner Class 



The world's banner class affords an Inter- 
esting and a somewhat amusing study. Its 
standards are variable and are based upon 
scholarship, wealth, physical beauty, art, prow- 
ess, etc. Its distinctions are sometimes dignified 
and sometimes ludicrous. Its affection Is always 
fickle. The value of Its banner depends upon 
the quahty it marks. One may only be noted 
for being a freak. People will pay admission to 
see the largest man or the smallest, or a mummy, 
or Siamese twins. The world will talk about a 
man whether he be noted or notorious. 

With reference to man's being, his relation 
to God Is of primary Importance. The Bible is 
full of statements to this effect. Too many 
people put everything and seek everything be- 
fore God. This Is unfair. If God were given 
His rightful place there would be no Incongruity 
between the honors He bestows and those be- 
stowed by men. As It Is, man looks on the out- 
side and God on the Inside ; man asks, Have you 
got any money? God asks, How did you get it? 

27 



Quality Folks 



When the inside and the outside agree, the king- 
doms of earth and heaven meet. 

Man's distinction before his Maker depends 
upon the virtue of his motives, and the honor 
he receives depends upon the worship he ascribes 
to Him. Man is honored of God when he is 
in right relations to the world about him, and 
when God marks a man the stamp is seen. Shal- 
low-hearted and small-brained people advertise 
themselves, but the man to whom God gives a 
banner has a goodness which speaks for itself. 
Has God given you a banner? If so, both you 
and others have found it out. There is honor 
for all who are honor-men. 



28 



THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS 

** Worship the Lord in the beauty ol holiness." — 
/ Chronicles x<ui, 29, 

** Holiness is the symmetry of the soul." — Philip Herify. 

** The essence of true holiness consists in conformity to 
the nature and will of God." — Lucas. 

" It must be a prospect pleasing to God to see His 
creatures forever drawing nearer to Him by greater degrees 
of resemblance."- .Aflr</if5on. 

**The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most 
powerful influence in the world, next to the might of the 
Spirit of God."-— Pa5CA/. 

The moment an object is invested with 
beauty it becomes a thing to be desired. Beauty 
is attractive and never lacks votaries who wor- 
ship at its shrine. There is something in a 
man that always responds to the bewitching spell 
of comeliness. He may err in his judgment as 
to what constitutes gracefulness, but he never 
fails to yield to its charm. Prove that a thing 

29 



Quality Folks 



is beautiful, and you create a demand for it. 
Even external adornment wields an influence 
over the shallow-hearted and unwise. Recog- 
nizing this fact, far-seeing concocters of curative 
cosmetics, taking advantage of a sometimes- 
noticed feminine desire, have flooded the market 
with pastes and powders and lotions and lini- 
ments warranted to bleach and tint, or to fill up 
hollows and smooth out wrinkles, and rejuvenate 
blanched and faded countenances, as if beauty 
were a thing to be smeared on the outside! 
Beauty that is not deep-seated will rub off and 
fade. 

If holiness could be seen to be the thing of 
beauty which indeed it is, men would seek it 
as a hidden treasure. The difficulty is that its 
visage has been marred by garblers, many of 
whom unintentionally misrepresent the truth. 
The sin against the beauty of saintliness is the 
sin of ignorance — ignorance of the principles 
and essence of righteousness. True holiness is 
always beautiful. It has inspired a perennial 

30 



The Beauty of Holiness 



interest in the human heart in spite of the im- 
perfections of its exhibiters. If no one has ever 
seen any of the beauty of holiness in you, the 
fault is with you, and not with holiness. 

Holiness is not anything that can be as- 
sumed or merely professed. It is a quality of 
the heart. It is constitutional. Beauty is its 
inevitable aspect — the mark that God sets on 
virtuous living. ^Tretty is that pretty does." 
The author of one of the proverbs says that **a 
fair woman without discretion is like a jewel of 
gold in a swine's snout." Some people are like 
certain flowers which are admired for their color 
but despised for their odor. 

" What is beauty? Not the show 

Of shapely limbs and features. 
These are but flowers 
Which have their dated hours 

To breathe their momentary sweets, then go. 
'T is the stainless soul within 
That outshines the fairest skin.*' 

The story is told of a gentleman who had 
two children — one, a daughter, very plain and 

31 



Quality Folks 



unattractive; the other, a son, very fair and 
handsome. One day they both saw their faces 
in the mirror. The lad was charmed with his 
countenance, and commented on his Beauty. 
The girl, sad at the sight of her plain features, 
and hurt by her brother's rudeness, took the 
matter to their father, who heard the tale and 
then addressed them thus: *'I would have you 
both look into the glass every day ; you, my son, 
that you remember never to dishonor the beauty 
of your face by the deformity of your actions; 
and you, my daughter, that you may take care 
to hide the defect of beauty in your person by 
the superior luster of your virtuous and amiable 
conduct." It is better to acquire beauty than to 
be born with it. The one must increase, the 
other decrease. The young man looks at his 
bride and sees a physical beauty and vigor of 
youth ; the old man looks at his wife and sees a 
lovelier beauty, that has been refined by sorrow 
and perfected through suffering. 

The beauty of holiness is the beauty of 

32 



The Beauty of Holiness 



wholeness. It involves the whole man — physi- 
cal, mental, moral. But a man may be sound 
and complete with reference to any stage in his 
development and yet be a long way from ma- 
turity. The fairness of a symmetrical soul is 
not the work of one day. Little by little life's 
harmony is written in the face. The fountain- 
head of beauty is the heart, and every generous^ 
thought adds luster to the outward shapes of 
life. The inward grace of holiness has an out- 
ward, inviting charm. When holiness is really 
present, beauty, its complement, is always there. 
The average person thinks of holiness as re- 
ligiousness, sanctimoniousness, piousness, which 
are liable only to indicate the lack of holiness. 
Be not deceived; holiness is simply wholeness, 
and wholeness is always fair. 



33 



A SWEET-SMELLING SAVOR 

**An offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling 
savor/' — Ephesians 'v, 2. 

"Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you 
a monument of virtue that the storms of time can never de- 
stroy. Write your name in kindess, love, and mercy on the 
hearts of thousands you come in contact with year by year, 
and you will never be forgotten." — Chalmers, 

" Having every one of them harps and golden vials full 
of odors, which are the prayers of saints." — Revelation 'o, 8* 

** Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that 
faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand 
it." — Lincoln, 

**Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offence unto 
Me; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but 
those that be of men." — St. Mattheio X'vi, 23. 

Recently, while visiting the Congressional 
Library at Washington, as I stood in the vesti- 
bule among the marble columns and walked un- 
der the polished arches, reading the beautiful 
sentiments inscribed above the doors and win- 

34 



A Sweet-Smelling Savor 



dows and in the niches of the walls, my eyes fell 
upon these words : 

"Only the actions of the just 
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust/' 

and immediately my mind turned to contem- 
plate the value of a fragrant life, redolent with 
sweet odors and scented with the perfume of 
virtuous deeds. Since then I have been unable 
to shake myself loose from the thought that all 
life that is really worth while must be odorous 
with a "sweet-smelling savor.'* 

The text, chosen because It contains a phrase 
which may be used as a center around which we 
may group our thoughts, is one of Paul's great 
sentences. Some people never speak without 
saying something rich; others speak much and 
say little. The apostle has been talking about 
brotherly kindness and has just said, "Be ye 
kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving 
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath 
forgiven you," and now he says, "Imitate God" 
and "Walk in love as Christ hath loved us." 

35 



Quality Folks 



He puts the Father's love and the Son's sacri- 
fice on an equality. He would have us under- 
stand that Christ's sacrifice was not an offering 
to appease an angry God and to reconcile Him 
to His rebellious family, but only an act of 
devoted, sacrificial love, whose incense was a 
sweet-smelling savor to God. So from every 
good life there may arise in times of sacrifice 
the fragrance delightsome to God and man. 
Savor is the quality that affects the taste or 
smell — the flavor or scent of a thing. It is ap- 
plied to taste or odor, or to both combined. 
Salt has a certain taste or savor, without which 
it is worthless. A rose has likewise a scent or 
savor. Isaac asked his son to make him a sav- 
ory meat, which meant that It should be both 
pleasant to taste and smell. According to the 
ancient idea, God's part in the burnt-offering or 
sacrifice was the sweet-smelling odor. Differ- 
ence in savor is an essential difference. Paul 
said, "One star differeth from another star In 
glory," and so one might say, *'One peach dif- 

36 



A Sweet-Smelling Savor 



fereth from another peach in flavor; one flower 
from another flower in perfume ; one man from 
another man in savor." 

A person is repulsive or attractive in pro- 
portion as the savor of his actions is foul or 
fragrant. There is a difference between a rank 
weed and a carnation, expressed largely in the 
matter of odor. With reference to others, our 
likes and dislikes are based upon the flavor and 
odor of their lives. Hearts, like fruit and 
flowers, are sour or bitter or sweet, or fragrant 
or foul. With reference to the individual, one 
has the privilege and responsibility of saying 
himself what his own savor shall be, for God 
has placed at his disposal powers that can change 
his heart, either for better or worse. 

The life that is scented with the perfume 
of goodness leaves sweet fragrance in its wake. 
Some people have a refreshing savor In their 
looks and words, which lingers even in their 
absence as the odor of a sweet smell. It was 
said of Evangeline that *'when she passed it 

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seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music," and 
the Maker of Proverbs declares, *'The memory 
of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked 
shall rot." The elements of enduring stability 
are always associated with the finer sentiments 
of the heart. 

A soul diffuses its rarest fragrance when 
most fully imbued with the spirit of right. 
There is a difference between perfume applied 
externally and that which is breathed out of the 
soul within. They may smell equally sweet, 
but they are not equally expressive of the inner 
life. Religion is not something that can be put 
on. If it be real it must be as essentially a part 
of one's nature as the flavor is a part of the fruit 
or the fragrance a part of the flower. "A sweet- 
smelling savor" is the perfume of a heart that 
distils fragrance and simply lets it out because 
it can't contain it. The odor of goodness is 
lasting. Be good. 



38 



UNTEMPERED MORTAR 

" Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar 
that it shall ialV—Ezekiet ziii, //. 

**0, what a goodly outside falsehood hath; a goodly 
apple rotten at the core." — Shakespeare. 

**Half the work that is done in the world is to make 
things appear what they are not.** — £". i?. Beadle. 

** Were we to take as much pains to be what we ought to 
be, as we do to disguise what we are, we might appear like 
ourselves without being at the trouble of any disguise at all." 
— Rochefoucauld. 

" Daubing over a bad wall with bad mortar only pre- 
vents its blemishes and weaknesses from being discovered, 
but has no tendency to strengthen it." — Clarke. 

*' The hypocrite shows the excellence of virtue by the 
necessity he thinks himself under in seeming to be virtuous." 
— Johnson. 

In the time of Ezekiel bricks were made of 
beaten earth rammed into molds, or boxes, and 
then dried in the sun. Such a block of dried 
clay would molder even if exposed to moisture, 

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and would entirely melt away when drenched by 
a dashing rain. It was, therefore, necessary to 
daub or plaster the walls built of this material 
with a fine, tempered mortar of lime and sand 
to protect them against the weather. A wall 
built of sun-dried bricks and simply smeared 
with whitewash would stand in times of drouth, 
but a rain-storm would change it into a mass of 
rubbish. The walls of many ancient cities were 
made of this unbaked clay, and consequently 
have been washed away by the beating tempests 
of the centuries. Not even a vestige of the 
ancient ramparts of Babylon can be found. 

The prophet here presents a scathing denun- 
ciation against the practice of telling lies. He 
likens the word of false prophets and prophet- 
esses to a dirt-wall plastered with untempered 
mortar which crumbles beneath the pelting rain 
and is rent by the stormy wind. He represents 
God as being furious with anger at their un- 
truthful pretensions ; he predicts the utter demo- 
lition of the deceptive wall and the complete de- 

40 



Untempered Mortar 



struction of those who daubed it with the un- 
tempered coat. God Is against the liar and the 
lie, and will not tolerate falsehood either spoken 
or acted. 

The thoughtful student can not consider this 
portion of Scripture together with what pre- 
cedes and what follows it, without having his 
mind directed to the perplexing and complicated 
phenomena which may be classed under the gen- 
eral name "prophecy." In every ancient nation 
there have been persons who sought to influence 
public opinion and action by foretelling things 
to be. Israel was no exception and had all the 
grades, from the lowest to the highest. There 
were those who attempted to forecast the future 
by magic or sorcery and the occult arts, which 
they believed influenced the supernatural powers 
which govern human destiny. Croesus sent mes- 
sengers to the oracles of Delphi, Dodona, and 
Jupiter Ammon, to find out what would be the 
result of his proposed invasion of the dominion 
of Cyrus, and Saul, sorely pressed by the Phil- 

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istines, goes to the witch of Endor, who calls up 
Samuel. There was also the supposed revela- 
tion of deity in dreams or "visions'* or half- 
articulate words uttered in a state of frenzy; 
and finally there was the prophet in the highest 
sense, who, ' Vhile subject to extraordinary men- 
tal experiences, yet had a clear and conscious 
grasp of moral principle and possessed an incom- 
municable certainty that what he spake was not 
his own word, but that of Jehovah." But even 
the greatest of these were not so signally marked 
by the Almighty as His witnesses as to render 
their authority always unquestionable. It was 
hard then, as now, to distinguish in every in- 
stance between the voice of God and the specu- 
lations of men. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel 
recognize divisions in the ranks of the prophets 
themselves, and discuss the difference between 
the true and the false. 

Falsifiers did not all perish with the school 
of the prophets. Still is the figure of the text 
applicable to human experience; still are men 

42 



Untempered Mortar 



working in clay and daubing it with untempered 
mortar. The practical value of this study will 
depend upon how the individual applies its truth 
to his own every-day life. You can build a wall 
out of pretty poor stuff and it will stand, if only 
it be protected by well-tempered cement. When 
man's poor clay is encased in God's strong ar- 
mor, the bulwark seems as hard as adamant. 
When man tries to build a wall out of his own 
material without God's help, it always falls 
down. 

A wall built of sun-dried clay and simply 
whitewashed may look like rock, but it can never 
stand the rigor of the storm. So much silk Is 
only *'near-silk;" so much character only imita- 
tion. The real value of a thing Is not in ap- 
pearance, but in essence. God Is against all 
falsehood, false balances, false measures, false 
tongues, and every counterfeit of the genuine 
and cheap imitation of the real must go down 
in a common and unmitigated condemnation. 
It is Impossible to deceive Omniscience. If you 

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are obliged to work with sun-baked clay, do n't 
daub It with untempered mortar or your wall 
will crumble into dust. God's cement can make 
a dirt wall strong as iron. His mortar is made 
of prayer and every virtue of a righteous life. 
Put ye on the whole armor, that ye may be able 
to stand. 



44 



THE SIMPLE LIFE 

**Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith 
the Lord of Hosts." — Zechariah i<v, 6* 

"At the same time came the disciples umo Jesus, say- 
ing, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? And 
Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst 
of them." — St. Matthe^o) x^iii, I, 2. 

** Nothing is more simple than greatness ; indeed, to be 
simple is to be great." — Emerson. 

** In character, in manners, in style, in all things, the 
supreme excellence is simplicity." — Longfell(y=w. 

** The greatest truths are the simplest : and so are the 
greatest men." — Hare. 

After all, there is not so much difference 
between a man and a man. Men have more 
in common than they think they have. Life 
stripped of externalities is everywhere largely 
the same. We adorn and elaborate, and grade 
and classify, and fence in and hedge about, and 

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Quality Folks 



partition and barricade, but the life back of the 
artificiality in every instance may be sketched in 
a few simple sentences. Behind the mask of 
equipage and trappings of culture and station 
and social prestige is a life at best simply char- 
acterized by birth, childhood, youth, maturity, 
age, and death, interspersed with the common 
experiences of joy and sorrow. The fences 
builded around individuals and classes are fan- 
cied, and not real. The music of the heart is 
not an epic, but a psalm. All life is keyed to 
love, and pain, and pity. 

There are two sides to life — the outside and 
the inside; the person we have schooled our- 
selves to be, and the one we really are. The 
simple life is the real life; the life that rings 
true; the life that is free from affectation; the 
life God gave — unwarped, uncolored, unosten- 
tatious. It is not known by its livery; it is 
charitable. It is true to its own mission; it 
looks upon wealth and poverty, form and figure, 
as mere circumstances which should in no wise 

46 



The Simple Life 



affect the heart. It looks upon life as grander 
than any or all of its accidents. It is sincere. 

The simple life is an artless life. Artifice is 
acquired. Men have to study to deceive; they 
have to learn to lie. The child's life is simple, 
and therefore great, because it is frank, open, 
ingenuous, and knows no distinctions of art 
or station. Artificiality is destructive of sim- 
plicity. The natural flower with morning dew 
upon its face reveals God; the artificial, fair 
imitation of the real, only proves the skill of 
man. The moment life is taken out of Its nat- 
ural setting, its beauty is impaired. Mr. Emer- 
son says it in his charming lines : 

*' I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, 

Singing at dawn on the alder bough; 

I brought him home, in his nest at even ; 

He sings the song, but it pleases not now, 
For I did not bring home the river and sky ; — 
He sang to my ear, — they sang to my eye. 

The delicate shells lay on the shore ; 
The bubbles of the latest wave 
Fresh pearls to their enamel gave, 

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And the bellowing of the savage sea 

Greeted their safe escape to me. 

I wiped away the weeds and foam, 

I fetched my sea-born treasures home ; 

But the poor, unsightly, noisome things 

Had left their beauty on the shore. 

With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar." 

The mother rejoices in the simple beauty of 
her child. She never sees her offspring grimed 
with evil, nor bent with sin, nor even scarred 
with age, "In the old nest the brood is ever 
young." A man's best life is the child-life over 
which his mother crooned, before he ran away 
from home to feed on husks and spoil the sweet- 
ness of his soul. True grandeur is simplicity. 
Christ's word to hardened sinners was, "Except 
ye be converted and become as little children, ye 
can not enter heaven." Back then, to the days 
of the innocent heart, the unstained mind, the 
unpolluted lips; the days when thy heart was 
clean ! 

Simplicity is a state of mind. The rich may 
have it as well as the poor. It is a wholesome, 

48 



The Simple Life 



good, sincere heart. The simple life is the life 
that God gave man, unhampered, unhindered, 
unalloyed. It Is simply a good heart being nat- 
ural. God's law is simplicity; man's, round- 
aboutness. O, man, wouldst thou be great, 
thou must be good ! Simplicity is greatness. 



49 



UNNUMBERED 

** Thou Shalt not number the tribe of Levi. The Levites 
shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony. — 
Numbers i, 49, 53* 

''The Levites did not build the bouses nor fight the 
battles nor plant the vineyards; but they watched over the 
safety of that for whose sake all houses were built, all battles 
fought, all vineyards planted — the inner shrine of the sanc- 
tuary — the consecration of the hearth and home. The loss 
of ten thousand of her soldiers would have been nothing to 
the putting out of her altar fires." — M^theson, 

** Think of a heart, a home, a business, a city, without a 
sanctuary in the midst ! The altar is life's main ornament 
and its principal force— a center without which there can be 
no life." — Joseph Parker. 

** A good man does good merely by living." — But^wef* 

The fourth book of the Bible is called Num- 
bers because it contains an account of the num- 
bering and marshaling of the Israelites in their 
journey from the land of bondage to the land of 
promise. On the first day of the second month 
of the second year after their departure from 

50 



Unnumbered 



Egypt, the tabernacle having been erected and 
It and the priests consecrated, Moses is com- 
manded to take a census of the people. 

There is a singular significance in the fact 
that he was directed to number the people. 
Each man is marked and recorded — he is num- 
ber so-and-so. The emphasis is not more on the 
sum than the integer. God is not satisfied with 
mere totality. He must have an account from 
each number. He never loses sight of the in- 
dividual; He knows if one coin out of ten is 
lost or if one out of a hundred of His sheep 
be gone astray. Herein is the emphasis of per- 
sonality that every man bears an individual 
stamp. 

But how about the Levites? They are not 
numbered with the rest. Have they been neg- 
lected and overlooked; uncounted or discounted 
because they are deemed unfit for survival? O, 
no; they have not been shunted from the race 
of life; they have been separated for special 
duty; they have really been given the greatest 

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work of all. Their names were not written on 
the roll of warriors, but if to be unnumbered 
after the manner of men is to be of no account, 
the world is carrying a heavy freight of nui- 
sances. The majority of lives are without a 
public record. Only a few are marked as lead- 
ers or their lieutenants. What, then, of the un- 
numbered masses, the lives without name or 
fame ! Could they drop out of life's activities 
and their absence not be noticed? Nay, let no 
man think that he could die and a place would 
not be empty. In the sight of God no soul is 
little and no task is small. 

The most telling work is always done behind 
the scenes. A great musician plays a brilliant 
concerto and a throng goes wild with cheers; 
but that which seems the flash of genius is only 
the radiance from the furnace fires of secret toil. 
The spectacular could not be possible without 
the obscure. Gorgeous flowers and tinted blos- 
soms are only the outward manifestation of the 
toil of roots which work in dirt and darkness. 

52 



Unnumbered 



One may pluck the bloom and hurt the root but 
little; but only let him pluck the root, and he 
has robbed the flower of life. There is a comic 
picture, not wholly lacking pathos, of a modern 
college student arrayed in flashy clothes. In the 
distance stands a brown-tanned son of labor, 
hard-handed, toil-worn, and clad in boots and 
jeans. The gaudy dude is dazzling, but the old- 
fashioned father is In fact "the man behind." 
The world is inclined to give the seeming undue 
credit and to overlook the real. 

Greater than to be among the numbered is 
to help to build the lives that count. God be- 
stows His crowns on people not because they are 
'^enrolled," but because they have "served." 
No honest work, howe'er obscure, is mean, 
nor fails at length. A flower may be "born 
to blush unseen," but it does not "waste its 
fragrance on the desert air." Social settlement 
work is based on the belief that it is worth 
while for a fragrant life to drive the miasma 
from the desert air. Many a woman whose 

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name is never heard beyond her humble cot has 
trained a child that counts. Men are made fit 
to be numbered in the old homstead, where in- 
fluences make ineffaceable impressions. Many 
a man could agree with J. L. Shroy in these 
touching lines: 

" How oft in my dreams I go back to the day 

When I stood at our old wooden gate 
And started to school in full battle array 

Well-armed with a primer and slate. 
And as the latch fell I thought myself free, 

And gloried, I fear, on the sly, 
Till I heard a kind voice call out after me» 

^ Be a good boy, good-bye.' 

"'Be a good boy, good-bye,' It seems 

They have followed me all these years ; 
They have given a form to my youthful dreams 

And scattered my foolish fears. 
They have stayed my feet on many a brink. 

Unseen by a blinded eye ; 
For just in time I would pause and think ; 

' Be a good boy, good-bye.' " 

The greatest bulwark of a nation is not its 
constabulary, but the humble guardians of its 

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Unnumbered 



altar-fires. The strength of a republic lies in its 
intelligent and well-ordered homes. The man 
who founds a bad home is an enemy to the 
State. Burns has set the truth in fairest form : 

** Then homeward all take oflF their several way ; 

The youngling cottagers retire to rest ; 
The parent-pair their secret homage pay, 

And proffer up to heaven the warm request, 
That He who stills the raven's clamorous nest, 
Would in the way His wisdom sees the best. 
For them and for their little ones provide; 
But chiefly in their hearts with grace preside." 

**From scenes like these old Scotia's gran- 
deur springs." The home is the dearest place 
outside of heaven, but a home without a taber- 
nacle of testimony is only a lodging-house. 
Lives unnumbered by the world, but faithful to 
the trust of keeping the ark of the covenant, will 
not go uncounted by the Lord. 



55 



HEAT AND BRILLIANCY 

"He was a burning and a shining light." — St John ^, 35* 

" There are many persons the brilliancy of whose minds 
depends upon their heart. When they open that, it is hardly 
possible for it not to throw out some fire." — ^Desmalis. 

" Culture of intellect without religion in the heart, is 
only civilized barbarism, and disguised animalism." — 
Bunsen. 

"A man of intellect is lost unless he unites with it 
energy of character. When we have the lantern of Diogenes 
we must have his staff." — ChamforL 

" Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will 
be strong to live as well as to think." — Emerson. 

"Let your light so shine before men." — St» Maith&m 
^, 16. 

Let me try to paint a picture. From north 
to south a crooked river winds in and out 
through swampy glades and tracts of swaying 
reeds, past steep ascents and clambering terraces 
clothed with stately sycamores and shady oaks, 
and studded o'er with flowering shrubs and pale- 

56 



Heat and Brilliancy 



green willows, with here and there a clump of 
graceful palms. The valley, verdant where 
well watered, but barren when rising above the 
reach of spring-time flood, is narrow and bends 
to suit the river. Above the gorge some sixty 
feet a broad plain of blistering sand and barren 
waste stretches both east and west to bare and 
rugged hills, forming on the western border a 
strong contrast to the green paradise immedi- 
ately girding the city of palms and roses. Here 
in the wilderness, apart from the rush and con- 
fusion of city life, beside the flowing stream, 
where the narrow limits of the yearly flood 
draw sharp lines between tropical luxuriance and 
desert barrenness, shut in on both sides by wild 
and stony hills, a strange man, spare of form, 
with fiery eye and flowing hair, rough-clad in 
haircloth, and leathern-girdled, lifted up his 
voice as the messenger of God's anointed to pre- 
pare His way. He was a man with a message. 
The truth he proclaimed arrested the attention 
and commanded the homage of all classes. He 

57 

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was a lofty and fearless soul, who forgot self 
in his fidelity to his high commission. He 
preached repentance as the only escape from the 
impending wrath of God. His voice broke the 
prophetic silence of five hundred years. Coura- 
geous preacher ! Would anybody think of liken- 
ing him to the swaying calumus stalks in the 
swamps by the river bank? Would any one 
expect to find out there amid the rigor of the 
wilderness a pampered son of royalty ? Was he 
a prophet? Yes, a pre-eminent prophet — "He 
was a burning and a shining lampJ^ He was 
not the light, but he came to bear witness of it. 
A prophet from the Jewish point of view 
was not so much a seer as a fearless preacher. 
He was thought of as one from whom the truth 
shone forth as the light streams from the sun. 
The Hebrew word for prophet is derived from 
a root which means to "boil up," or "boil forth" 
— hence, a prophet was one who uttered by re- 
sistless impulse the rebukes and commands of 
the Almighty. 

58 



Heat and Brilliancy 



His words were brilliant with illuminative 
glory and heated with the intensity of fiery zeal. 
Seven hundred years before the time of John 
the Baptist, Amos said, **When the Lord speaks, 
who can but prophesy?" and later the great 
apostle to the Gentiles declared, **Woe is me if 
I preach not the gospel." A message that does 
not boil up out of the heart may be brilliant, but 
it will always lack heat. 

Brilliancy without heat may be very splen- 
did, but it has little power to rouse to life and 
action. Vegetation would soon lose its health 
and vigor and would pine away and die if it got 
no other light than moonlight. It is only when 
the sun boils forth its *^deluge of summer" that 

" Every clod feels a stir of might, 

An instinct within that reaches and towers. 
And, groping blindly above for light, 
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers/' 

Mere intellectuality is cold and stoical. It can 
philosophize, theorize, analyze, dogmatize, criti- 
cise, and dream, and its cool-blooded essays can 

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edify and enlighten: but the light which is ra- 
diant heart-heat has power in it. Slavery was 
put down when the hearts of the people waxed 
hot against it. Erasmus was a scholar, Luther 
was a passionate-hearted enthusiast. The for- 
mer talked about the Reformation, the latter 
set it on foot. 

With reference to character, if a choice 
must be made between heat and brilliancy, 
choose heat. It is possible for heat to reach a 
point where it becomes light. Ninety per cent 
of genius is intensity. Service is sweet when the 
heart is in it. The heart of the good man is the 
sanctuary of God in the world. The test of 
ability to enter the kingdom of God is a test 
of the heart. Christ's question on the eve of 
His departure was, ''Lovest thou Me?" The 
world is in greater need of love than wisdom. 

The highest type of man is one with a warm 
heart and a brilliant mind. A great soul is 
strong to live and also to think. When the 
heart is wrong the head is right in vain. Intel- 

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Heat and Brilliancy 



lect without religion is only civilized barbarism : 
but, on the other hand, zeal without knowledge 
is the frenzy of a fool. What the world needs 
IS a fine balance of head and heart, the burning 
passion of unquenchable purpose, and an iner- 
rant wisdom to give it shape. 

" Let knowledge grow from more to mora 
But more of reverance in us dwell ; 
That mind and soul according well. 
May make one music as before, 
But vaster." 



6i 



THE WITHERED HAND 

** There was a man there, and his right hand was 
withered . . . And Jesus said, Stretch forth thy hand 
And he did so : and his hand was restored." 
— 5/* Luke <c6 6, to, 

** Lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied 
knees, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but 
let it rather be h^Sil^dir —Hebrews xii, 12, 13. 

** Men cry, *Put out the lame from the company of 
runners; they spoil the picture ! ' God says, * Gather them 
in still more ! ' In His temple the lame man stands beside 
the gate of beauty ; it mars the prospect to the eye, but it 
opens up a prospect to the heart." — Maiheson* 

**A great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, 
withered, waiting for the moving of the water." — Si* John <v, 3, 

The hand is man's most conspicuous mark 
of differentiation from the beast. It is the most 
important organ of his body. It is the willing 
vassal of his mind. Deaf, dumb, and blind, his 
hand becomes his trumpet, his mouth-piece, and 
his eyes. Helen Keller and Laura Bridgman 

62 



The Withered Hand 



are striking examples of how the hand may be 
the intermediary between the soul and the world 
outside. When through age or illness his hands 
refuse to heed his head, it is a mark of man's 
decay. 

The hand has much to do with art and 
music. One may mix his colors "with brains," 
but he must have a hand or he can not paint a 
picture; he may feel the rising transport of a 
dream of sculptured beauty, but his thought can 
never live in marble without the magic hand. 
The great organ, strange repository of sweet 
sounds and celestial harmonies, will not break 
Its silence and can not tell its message to a man 
with a withered hand. The hand has both an 
aesthetic and a utilitarian relation to life. It is 
the most potent factor in the progress and en- 
lightenment, the development and enfranchise- 
ment of the human race. 

It may be true that "man has been given 
two hands and one tongue because he ought to 
do twice as much as he says." At all events, 

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it IS safe to say that he needs both hands In a 
universe where there are 

" So many worlds, so much to do, 
So little done, such things to be," 

and the tale of the text is doubly sad because 
the man's right hand is withered. Here is a 
soul with his best arm palsied. What a picture 
of a blemished man ! 

It Is easy to recognize the handicap of a 
physically withered hand ; the discount of a body 
with a crippled member. According to Paul, 
there is not only a natural but also a spiritual 
body. Our experience teaches us that we do not 
have to die to become conscious of this fact. 
Every day man's heart beats In two realms. His 
spiritual organism is invisible, but its propor- 
tions are definite and real. Each person is suffi- 
ciently acquainted with his own mental, moral, 
and spiritual weakness to know what it is to 
have a spiritual body with a withered hand. 
The man In the synagogue with the limp arm, 
the worthless hand, the blemished body, Is a 

64 



The Withered Hand 



type of the man whose spiritual life is discounted 
by defects. 

It is impossible for a man with a withered 
hand to do a sound man's work. The cripple — 
physical, intellectual, spiritual — has a damaging 
handicap. Pity the man whose bodily deformity 
compels him to hobble all the way from the 
cradle to the grave with crutches ! O, the pathos 
of the intellectual infirmity that makes one stand 
in the world of thought with a shrunken arm 
and a shriveled hand! What multitudes of 
spiritually impotent folk, halt, and maimed, and 
blind, helplessly waiting for some angel to come 
and stir the pool! The Church has been too 
busy nursing cripples to do good work at train- 
ing soldiers. 

Some men are born with withered hands, 
and some hands wither through lack of use. To 
whom little is given, of him not much will be 
required : but woe to him who had a charge and 
lost his chance. Both earth and heaven are 
merciful with weakness one can not help, but 
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both abhor the fault that need not be. Let him 
that knoweth better than he does be sure that 
his hand is withered. Heaven's greatest grief 
is not that men have withered hands, but that 
their blight is self-imposed. Man of the 
shrunken sinews and dangling, senseless arm, 
take heart! There is still another chance. 

The man who has a withered hand may have 
his hand made whole. Stretch forth thy hand ! 
Thou canst not ? Thy hand has hung there limp 
too long? Thou wilt not try? Stretch forth 
thy hand ! It takes both God and man to heal a 
helpless arm. Hast thou a little faith? Canst 
thou believe? Wilt thou but only try? Stretch 
forth thy hand! There is a sure specific for a 
blemished life. It matters not what shrank thy 
limb. The balm is ready, but thou must do thy 
part. Stretch forth thy hand ! And Christ will 
make thee whole. 



66 



PIOUS IN SPOTS 

" Ye tithe mint and rue and every herb, and pass over 
judgment and the love of God."— 5f* Luke xi, 42. 

" True piety hath in it nothing weak, nothing sad, noth- 
ing constrained. It enlarges the heart; it is simple, free 
and attractive/' — Feneton* 

"Learn to show piety at home."—/ Timothy <v, 4. 

" Measure not men by Sundays, without regarding what 
they do all the week after.''— Ft//Zer. 

A CAREFUL examination of the life of the 
average Christian would reveal the fact that he 
is usually engaged in doing little things which 
he likes to do and which really cost but little 
effort. The majority of people know nothing 
about the dignity of sacrifice. We like to go to 
church (some of us do), we like to hear good 
music and sermons, we like to be in the society 
of good people : but doing as we like may only 
be the expression of individual prejudices. 

We are so fearfully fussy about so many sec- 
ondary, subordinate, and really non-essential 

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things. Especially is this true in matters re- 
ligious. It is not at all unlikely that we may be 
laying great stress upon some little thing as in- 
significant in the whole realm of duty as the 
giving of a tenth of the sprigs of mint, and 
anise, and garden herbs, was in the Master's 
thought in comparison with * 'judgment and the 
love of God." There are people who are won- 
derfully particular about working their praying- 
machine who are dreadfully unscrupulous in 
"the weightier matters of the law." It was the 
custom of the more accurate Jews to strain all 
their drinks through linen or gauze, lest un- 
awares they should drink down some little in- 
sect and transgress the law. It is fairly possible 
that we likewise may be riding some little hobby 
which we have built ourselves, and that, while 
we are straining out gnats we may be swallowing 
camels. It is all right to be particular about 
little sins, but we dare not neglect the great ones. 
What is It to be pious ? Is the person who 
prays aloud, groans about his sins, sighs most 

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Pious in Spots 



sadly, lives the most narrow and restricted life, 
dresses In most plain and unattractive garb, car- 
ries a Bible under his arm, and who always Is 
preaching to people, most pious ? Not necessa- 
rily; in fact, these things are more often the evi- 
dence of lack of true piety. Genuine piety Is 
strong; it Is simple and happy and free, and 
graces childhood and old age; It Is modest and 
attractive, the crowding glory of womanhood, 
and the majestic sweetness of manhood; it is to 
be filled with soundness and sanity. 

Christ never presented a detailed platform 
of reformation. He concerned Himself with vi- 
talities, and not with accidents and externalities. 
He never busied Himself In going about patch- 
ing up broken walls. He simply created a new 
atmosphere for the soul. His life Is the spirit 
of love, which, when It fills men's hearts, mani- 
fests Itself in their habits and actions. A truly 
pious heart Is just a good heart living a natural 
life, sanctifying every rite of worship with the 
spirit back of the form. A holy heart Is simply 
a whole heart. 69 



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The heart that is pious all the way through 
deals with things in order of their importance 
and is unceasingly devoted to the spirit instead 
of the letter. When ''judgment and the love 
of God" rule the understanding and the con- 
science, mint and rue and all manner of herbs 
will receive their due attention. Little formali- 
ties of worship are of no consequence when the 
tenor of the life is wrong. 

When the soul is sanely, soundly, whole, ex- 
ternaHties either of worship or recreation will 
take care of themselves. True piety is the ex- 
pression of a condition of rightness and spiritual 
health. It is never morbid, nor diseased. It 
lays more stress on essential life than non-essen- 
tial form. The really pious person is not merely 
religious In spots. He covets vigor and health 
of soul. He tries to live at the top of his con- 
dition. His religion is his life. He lives it 
every day, and so his every act becomes an act 
of worship. 



70 



SUNLIGHT AND MOONLIGHT 

** I am the light of the world."— 5^* John<vii, t2. 

" Ye are the light of the world."— 5;f. Matthem) ^, 14. 

" Yet the moonlight is the sunlight." — Tennyson* 

"Moral light is the radiation of the diviner glory." — 
Dick* 

** There shall be no night there ; and they need no 
candle, neither light of the sun."— i^e^e/^a/rb/z xxii, 5, 

**The light of the moon shall be as the light of the 
sun,''— Isatah xxx^ 26* 

In a conversation with His disciples con- 
cerning a certain blind man whom He had 
healed, Jesus said to them, "As long as I am in 
the world, I am the light of the world." But it 
was contrary to the very nature of things that 
He should always remain upon the earth. Only 
for a few brief years could He thus be "the light 
of the world." Referring to this fact and recog- 
nizing His relation to His followers. He con* 
tinues, "Yet a little while, and the world seetK 

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Me no more ; but ye see Me." He speaks for the 
coming centuries and lays the responsibility on 
faithful men in the declaration, "Ye are the light 
of the world." But they were really only re- 
flectors, and He was still the light. It was as if 
the Sun were to say to the Moon, *'I shall 
shortly sink beneath the horizon and from the 
sight of men; but not from yours. Then the 
only way I shall have of lighting the world will 
be by shining on your face until men, seeing your 
glowing cheek shall know that my light still 
shines. During my absence from the world, 
O Moon, you must be its light." 

There is no light but sunlight. The sun is 
the luminary and the stars reflectors. Tenny- 
son puts it in poetic phrase, "Yet the moonlight 
is the sunlight." The sun could not stay in the 
world by night; if it did, there would be no 
night. But the sun is never without an agent, 
though the sky be full of clouds. The moon 
and the stars and the milky way are proof that 
the sun is shining. Blessings on the true reflector 

72 



Sunlight and Moonlight 



that gives what light it can ! But mighty Sun, 
if thou shouldst cease to shine, the day would 
turn to midnight. O Soul, without the light of 
God thy night is black and starless ! 

Without the sunlight there can be no moon- 
light. Fair Luna has no brightness of her own. 
Her face grows dark when something blocks 
the fiery pathway of the sun. Man can not shine 
with borrowed light with a world thrust in be- 
tween himself and Christ. Then shun the thing 
that throws a shadow on thy life, for sometimes 
the foot-sore traveler walks by night, the kindly 
Moon his silent guide, and many a soul must 
climb the steeps to Glory in the light of other 
lives. Some men will never see the Christ ex- 
cept as they behold His light reflected by those 
who call themselves or are called by others — 
Christians. Beware, lest the darkness of thy 
life may cost some soul its crown. 

When the sun and the moon are both in the 
sky the moon can scarce be seen. When the 
sun is least apparent the moon may be the fair- 

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est, but her beauty is a glory not her own. The 
moon's chief business Is to represent the sun- 
light ; to keep a little candle burning in the night. 
So men are witnesses for Christ; their little 
lamp a faint reflection of His light. If the light 
in them be darkness, they have added to the 
night. Blessed Christ, Sun of Righteousness, 
Thou hast said, "He that foUoweth Me shall 
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light 
of life." My life is only a little taper. Lord, but 
suffer the light on the wick to be a spark from 
the fiery Sun ! 

The Lord God Is a Sun. He floods the 
world with light. When the day Is done and 
the sky is dark. He Is still the light of life. His 
glory shines by day and night from the hearts 
and lives which reflect His light. His light Is 
sunlight and man's light Is moonlight. *'Yet 
the moonlight Is the sunlight," and he who sees 
the faintest glimmer gets a gleam of God Him- 
self. Behold the light ! The night is past ! It 
Is morning ! 

74 



COLOR BLIND 

"Their own wickedness hath blinded them/' — {Apociy^ 
phd) Wisdom of Solomon xi, 2t. 

** Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; 
that put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; that put 
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter/' — Isaiahs, 20* 

"Cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then 
thou shalt see clearly." — Si* Ma,tthe<w ^ii, 5. 

"The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind.' '—Tsatm 
cxl^i, 80 

" The eye observes only what the mind, the heart, the 
imagination are gifted to see ; and sight must be reinforced 
by insight, before souls can be discerned as well as man- 
ners."— £", P* Whipple. 

"Eyes will not see when the heart wishes them to be 
blind. Desire conceals truth as darkness does the earth." 
— Seneca,. 

Color-blindness is the name given to the 
inability to distinguish separate colors. This 
physical defect must have existed from time im- 
memorial, though there is no record of the de- 

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scription of a case until the latter part of the 
eighteenth century, when a man was found who 
could only distinguish white and black. He 
could not discern fruit on the trees by its color, 
but only by its shape. A few years later an Eng- 
lish chemist by the name of Dalton gave a de- 
scription of his own inability to distinguish red 
from green. This weakness was called "Dal- 
tonism" and was only looked upon as one of 
the strange anomalies of vision. Up till 1818 
only two other cases were reported. Within 
recent years the subject has been sufficiently 
studied to gain an adequate conception of the 
percentage of people afflicted with this chro^ 
matic defect. Special attention was called to 
the matter through the investigation of the 
causes of certain railroad accidents. It ap- 
peared that the engineers not only did not, 
but could not, distinguish the signals of danger 
which were displayed. Scientific men began an 
examination of school children, to determine the 
ratio and grades of defect. The result estab- 

76 



Color Blind 



lished the fact that perhaps four per cent of all 
males are born color-blind and a little over one 
per cent of females. 

There are in the retina of the eye nerve- 
fibers which are excited by waves of light. The 
development of color arises from the action of 
longer or shorter waves upon certain fibers, pro- 
ducing the sensation of a color according to the 
length of the waves. Long waves excite fibers 
sensitive to red; medium, those sensitive to 
green ; and short, those sensitive to violet. The 
absence or paralysis of the nerve-fibers or organs 
perceiving any one of the primary colors will 
produce blindness with reference to that color, 
as red-blindness, green-blindness, violet-blind- 
ness. When there is the entire absence of the 
perception of colors, the eye sees only black and 
white. There is, therefore, a striking analogy 
between the laws of physical and spiritual vision. 
The soul's eye may be totally blind, or it may 
only be defective and unable to discern lights 
and shades and colors in the Christian life. The 

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prevailing fault of the human heart is not that 
it can not see at all, but that it sees "men as 
trees." 

Defective spiritual eye-sight makes it im- 
possible to appreciate all the beauty of the 
world. Persons thus afflicted are sure to be 
uncharitable with their fellows. They are de- 
void of the power which enables them to per- 
ceive bright colors and so see only the plainest 
black and white. Their observations are unjust 
in proportion as their sight is faulty. They can 
only assign to others the shades and qualities 
which they understand themselves. He only 
sees clearly whose eye is sound and free from 
motes and beams. The thing seen even takes 
on the colors of the media through which it is 
viewed. 

Subjective soundness is absolutely necessary 
to a correct appreciation of objective goodness. 
When the eye is blinded with wickedness it can 
not tell good from evil. He who is color-blind 
and has never seen red, must not doubt Its ex- 

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Color Blind 



istence, though he can not tell how it looks. 
God's rainbow of character is made of various 
hues. What a pity that eyes which only see 
black and white must bring a world of beauty 
within the compass of their own conception! 
O Soul with a blemished eye, you may be 
loosed of your infirmity ! There is a Man who 
can open eyes that have been blind from the 
time of birth! There are so many eyes that 
only see a little of all that might be seen ! Lord, 
open men's eyes and let them seel 'Twere a 
shame to let such glory go to waste! Blind 
man, look up ! and be not faithless but believing. 



79 



MAKING FACES 

'*Be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for 
they disfigure their faces/' — SL MMhe^iv <Di, 16* 

**A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance." — 
Proverbs x<o, /i. 

** A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine," — Ecclesi- 
astes <viit, /• 

** A wicked man hardeneth his face." — Proverbs xxi, 29* 

'* The show of their countenance doth witness against 
them." — Isaiah tit, 9» 

** We are all sculptors and painters, and cur material 
is our own flesh and blood and bone. Any nobleness begins 
at once to refine a man's features; any meanness or sensu- 
ality to imbrute them." — Thoreau* 

Alexander Smith is the author of the 
statement, '*If we could but read It, every human 
being carries his life in his face, and is good- 
looking or the reverse, as that life has been good 
or evil. On our features the fine chisels of 
thought and emotion are eternally at work." 

80 



Making Faces 



When "Bobby" Burns, sitting in church be- 
hind a proudly-acting and finely-dressed lady, 
saw a louse crawling all unknown to her upon 
her hat, and took out his pencil and gave the 
world these lines, 

" O wad some power the glftie gie us, 
To see oursels as ithers see us," 

he perhaps did not present the finest example 
of attention to the sermon, but he did declare 
the subtle truth that if men could see their title- 
pages which others read in face and form, they 
would not feign to be the thing that they are 
not. What contortions, deceptions, assump- 
tions, hypocrisies ! What posing ! What cham- 
eleon-like effects ! ^ Be not deceived — the world 
is wise. The lady was not responsible for the 
presence of the insect on her bonnet, but man 
is the sculptor of his mien. His very features, 
though insensibly, come to be formed and to 
assume their shape and shade from the fre- 
quent and habitual expression of the affections 
of his soul. His character is daily crystallizing 
6 8i 



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in his manners and becoming indelibly imprinted 
on his face. Whether men know it or not, 
they are constantly engaged in the business of 
making faces. Sometimes they make funny 
faces and the world laughs; sometimes false 
faces and the world says they lie; sometimes 
they know not what faces and build them bet- 
ter than they know. 

The countenance contains at once a record 
and a forecast. It is the index of the volume 
of the past; the foreword of all the future 
chapters. The face is as legible as a printed 
page, and no deft skill is needed to read the 
handwriting of Nature and no superior wisdom 
to understand her marks. Faces disclose the se- 
crets that the tongue would hide; they tell the 
tale of wrath and pride, of fear and pain, vexa- 
tion and contempt, or, peace and joy, respect 
and faith, or lowliness and love. 

It is said that Queen Elizabeth so firmly 
believed in the fact that the countenance is an 
index of character, that she often remarked, 

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Making Faces 



'*A good face is the best letter of recommenda- 
tion." Who has not felt with Addison, pity for 
the wife of the man with a sour and shriveled 
face! 

One can not change his title-page and dis- 
regard the contents of his life; he can not be 
externally comely untir he is internally right. 
True beauty is not only the symmetry of ex- 
ternal parts; it is the harmony between the 
outside and the inner life. There is a difference 
between mere doll-faced beauty and the stronger 
grace which represents true worth within. 

The spiritual nature finds expression in the 
face. The ideas one delights in are written on 
his visage; he can not live ignobly and have a 
noble mien. When the light inside is darkness, 
the countenance can not shine; when the heart 
is true and upright, the face will not deny it. 
Heaven deliver us from the pinched, pointed, 
withered, wizzened, soured, shriveled, brazen, 
bilious, cross, critical countenance which tells of 
the starvation of a spirit feeding on the husks 

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of life when there is a feast in the Father's 
house ! A beneficent soul will have the face of 
beauty. All culture tells. When the soul is 
full of the light of love, the countenance will 
shine with **the glory of God in the face of 
Jesus Christ." 



84 



WEAK SPOTS 

"Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, 
that are ready to die ; for I have not found thy works per- 
feet before God." — ReveUtton iiU 2. 

" My strength fails because of mine iniquity." — Psalm 
xxxif to, 

** Not that I have already attained, or am already made 
perfect ; but I press on. . . . One thing I do. . . . 
I press on toward the goal." — PauL 

" In all our weaknesses we have one element of strength 
if we recognize it. Here, as in other things, knowledge of 
danger is often the best means of safety." — E* P. Roe* 

"The more weakness, the more falsehood; strength 
goes straight; every cannon-ball that has in it hollows and 
holes goes crooked. Weaklings must lie." — Richter. 

A GENTLEMAN engaged in the manufacture 
of automobiles stated that he had driven his 
touring-car five thousand miles and that he had 
then sent it to the shop, where it was being 
taken apart to be examined for weak spots. He 
said, "I am going to strengthen the parts 

85 



Quality Folks 



which are showing signs of weakness." He was 
proceeding in the belief that the only way to 
construct a machine perfect throughout was to 
strengthen the weak spots until there were none. 
The investigation would probably reveal the 
fact that the greater part of the machine was 
in perfect working order, but the weak place, 
however small, will damage Its efficiency. 

The character which man is constructing out 
of the raw material God has given him Is not 
a machine, but it has weak spots before It has 
run many miles. It Is, therefore, a good thing, 
once in a while, for one to take his character 
apart and to examine it that he may reconstruct 
it, leaving the weak spots out or at least trying 
to make them stronger. There Is more good 
than bad In almost any person, but in all there 
are liable to be weak spots which are not only 
annoying but which cause the character to wab- 
ble and to fail to run true. The careless farmer 
leaves his machinery out in the field exposed to 
all sorts of weather, and when he wants to use 

86 



Weak Spots 



it finds it in bad repair; some folks treat their 
souls that way. 

The best lives have weak spots. Paul had 
them. They may mean one's downfall if he 
do not look after them in time. The strain 
Is always on the weakest spot. A character 
may have but a single flaw, but it really is no 
stronger than the weak place in it. A chain 
always breaks at the weakest link. A neglected 
character, like a neglected machine, will find its 
weak spots multiplying and becoming weaker 
if they be not looked after promptly. 

Every time one strengthens a weak spot in 
his character, he fortifies his life. The fewer 
blemishes within the heart, the greater the re- 
sistance against temptation. It is not always 
easy to discover the exact defect, and some im- 
perfections are harder to remedy than others 
on account of the relation they bear to the 
whole. A very small fault will sometimes cause 
a very great disaster. Life can only be kept in 
good repair by constant watchfulness and at- 
tention to detail. 87 



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In the matter of building a character, man 
is not obliged to invent any part or to experi- 
ment on the best method of constructing a life 
complete. He has a perfect model. He has 
only to see that each part is made just like the 
pattern, and it will not only fit, but be the best. 
The great Architect of the perfect plan and 
Master Builder of the perfect work will help 
man make a perfect imitation. Whose heart 
IS full of flaws must bear the fault himself. 

God does not expect of any man that he 
shall be so perfect that no critic could find a 
single fault in him, but He does expect him to 
strive with all the passion of his soul to rid 
himself of weak spots. Some of God's men and 
women have been out of repair so long that 
they are well-nigh consumed with rust, and rot- 
ten with decay. O, Soul, discounted by defects, 
search out thyself and strengthen the things 
which remain and are ready to die, for thy works 
are not found perfect! 



88 



CLEAN DIRT 

"There is nothing from without a man, that entering 
into him can defile him, but the things which come out of 
him, those are they which defile him." — St, Mark ^ii, 16* 

"Dirt is not dirt, but only something in the wrong 
place. ' ' — Patmerton, 

"'Ignorance,' sa3rs Ajax, *is a painless evil.' So I 
should think is dirt, considering the merry faces that go 
along with it." — George EtioU 

** What hands are here ? ha! they pluck out mine eyes. 
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
Clean from my hands ? No, this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine." — Macbeth, 

" Here 's the smell of the blood still ; 

All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little 
hand." — Lady Macbeth, 

The philosopher defines dirt as '^misplaced 
matter." Though his definition may be cor- 
rect, dirt under ordinary circumstances is dis- 
agreeable. There is no defense for physical 
uncleanness, except for that grime which is often 

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the necessary attendant of honest toil. There 
are places where men must labor in dust-laden 
and smoke-filled atmospheres until their faces 
are black and their clothes are soiled, but where 
the white flower of their manhood may remain 
unsmirched. This sort of defilement might be 
called clean dirt. 

There is a dirt for which the other name 
is filth. It is the natural result and sure mark 
of laziness. It is not gotten from work, but 
from the failure to work. It is a boon-com- 
panion of sloth and indolence, and is always an 
associate of that poverty which arises from lack 
of thrift. It is never excusable, and Is the first 
step in the downward road that leads to crime. 
Dirt, disease, wretchedness, and sin are com- 
panionable fellows, and are liable to be found 
in the same abode. Respectable poor people 
are always clean. 

" The cottage was a thatched one, 
The outside old and mean, 
But everything within that cot 
Was wondrous neat and clean." 
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Clean Dirt 



Clean dirt Is not only dirt that will wash 
off, but dirt that is unavoidably on. Cleanli- 
ness is next to godliness, and there is no apology 
for uncleanness while water is abundant and 
soap is cheap. The grime of work and the 
dust of play are only '^misplaced matter." Such 
dirt Is not hard to wash away. It leaves no 
stain that hurts. 

" A pair of dimpled, dirty hands 

The lad brings home when through with play, 
But mother never scolds, because 
Clean dirt is quickly washed away. 

" The barefoot lad brings dusty feet, 
For he has journeyed far to-day. 
But mother bathes them pink and sweet; 
Clean dirt's not hard to wash away. 

" God keep the little feet from soil 
Of evil paths in life, and may 
The hands be stained alone by toil; 
Clean dirt Hke that will wash away." 

It is possible to be physically clean and 
morally unclean. Dirt that will wash off is 
bad enough, but clean beside the dirt that 

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water can not cleanse. There is nothing quite 
so wretched as a heart that is soiled with sin. 
Practical impiety of life proceeds from such a 
state; the influence of such a soul is bad. 
The dangerous tempter is the one that looks 
all right, but really is all wrong. What an in- 
congruity — face and hands washed clean with 
water, and a heart besmirched and filthy ! What 
symmetry of beauty — clean hands and a heart 
all pure! 

The filthy heart can not be cleansed with 
water. There is not water enough in the ocean 
to wash the stain from an unclean heart. The 
sad experiences of Macbeth and his Lady both 
illustrate this fact. The guilty heart must be 
purged with blood. So deep is the taint of sin 
that mere washing will not suffice. The clean 
heart must be a new heart ; no bleaching of the 
old one is enough. The ancient Singer felt the 
need when his soul cried out, ''Create in me a 
clean heart." No one but God can cleanse a 
life and keep it clean and pure, 

92 



Clean Dirt 



The face may be dirty and the garments 
soiled, and yet the heart be clean as the lotus- 
lily that springs from the black muck-bed; the 
hands may be white and the face perfumed, and 
the heart still black within. O, Soul, it is false 
to be fair without until you are fair within! 
Only the white-souled and clean of heart shall 
ever live with God. Are you clean in every 
part? 



93 



THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF 
THE ROAD 

** The Son of man ... a friend of publicans and 
sinners." — St Matthe^o) xi, 19^ 

" We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this 
present world/* — Titus ii, 12, 

** He was a friend to man, and he lived in a house by the 
side of the road." — Homer* 

There are two classes of people who have 
always refused to come into intimate relations 
with the common people in everyday life — the 
religious ascetic who is afraid of being contam- 
inated, and the aristocratic fool who thinks him- 
self too fine. The secluded cloisters of gloomy 
monasteries, with their dark cells and dismal re- 
treats, and the pale recluse with his sad counte- 
nance and somber dress bear testimony to a 
superstitious fanaticism at best poorly represent- 
ing the character of Him who spent a busy life 

94 



The House by the Side of the Road 

in contact with the people; while opulent villas 
and suburban mansions, with walled gardens 
and embowered lanes, and the rock-bound castle 
with gilded turret and massive arch, speak of 
the social barriers which divide the so-called 
lowly from the so-called great. 

The influence of the professional religionist 
is and always has been bad. When one sepa- 
rates himself from society and the affairs of men 
to practice a negative religion, he misinterprets 
God's word, '^Come ye out from among them 
and be ye separate,'* which means a separateness 
from the spirit of worldliness and not from 
worldly people. The Christian religion was 
intended by its Author to be a practical, posi- 
tive, active force in the world, though in prin- 
ciple not of it. He is most truly Christlike who, 
instead of shutting himself away from the surg- 
ing, fetid stream of human life, plunges in and 
with the strength of manly purpose rescues per- 
ishing souls. The world yearns for the exem- 
plification of Christian character in real men — 

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men who live "soberly, righteously, and godly'* 
in a world of actual things. Christian men and 
ministers serve the Kingdom best when they 
mingle with the crowd on the highway of life, 
the incarnation of manliness, virtue, and godly 
fear. There is something uncanny about a 
skirted priest; something irresistible about the 
sound goodness of a man. The haughty spirit 
that shuns the thronging highway on account 
of the supposed pre-eminence of wealth or name, 
is not only non-Christian, but ill-becoming to 
a man. God looks on hearts and not on robes 
and not on wealth nor worldly wisdom, and His 
best servant lives in a house by life's most pop- 
ulous and busy roadside and is a friend to man. 

" There are hermit souls that live withdrawn, 

In the place of their self-content ; 
There are souls like stars, that Hve apart 

In a f ellowless firmament ; 
There are pioneer souls that blaze their path 

Where highway never ran — 
But let me live by the side of the road, 

And be a friend to man. 

96 



The House by the Side of the Road 

" Let me live in a house by the side of the road, 

Where the race of men go by — 
The men who are good and the men who are bad- 

As good and as bad as I. 
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, 

Noi hurl the cynic's ban. 
Let me live in a house by the side of the road. 

And be a friend of man. 

** I see from my house by the side of the road, 
By the side of the highway of life, 
The men who press with the ardor of hope, 

The men who are faint with strife. 
But I turn not away from their smiles nor their 
tears — 
Both parts of an infinite plan — 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road, 
And be a friend to man." 

The test of the Christian faith must ever be 
found in the drudgery, the hum-drum, the hot, 
dusty stretches of the highway of life. Man's 
religion must be a practical, everyday affair, 
as much a part of his make-up as his lungs and 
blood. He who would exemplify his Master's 
spirit must recognize the fact that the difference 
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between men is one of heart and not of houses. 
To be a friend of man is to be a friend of God. 
True religion is a sound, sane, pure, manly 
mode of life in the very presence of evil and 
among men, whether good or bad. If the 
Christian life mean a sober, righteous, godly 
living; if it mean to be a man at his highest 
and his best, then count me with Christians. If 
by befriending my fellow-man I can be a friend 
of God, then let me dwell by the side of the 
road and be a friend to man. 



98 



THE BACK YARD 

"Clear thou me from hidden faults." — Psalm xix, 
12. {R. V.) 

" There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed ; 
and nothing hid that shall not be known." — Si, Matthew x, 26, 

** No man, for any considerable period, can wear one 
face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally- 
getting bewildered as to which may be true." — Ha^cvthorne* 

** Were we to take as much pains to be what we ought, 
as we do to disguise what we are, we might appear like our- 
selves without being at the trouble of any disguise at all." 
— Rochefoucauld. 

** Of all the evil spirits abroad in the world, insincerity 
is the most dangerous." — Froude. 

The subject was suggested to the writer 
while looking through the window of a train 
which was backing into the union depot past 
the rear of a number of lots fronting on a very 
attractive street of a certain city. The appear- 
ance of the residences evidently depended very 

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much on whether one had a front or a back 
view. The prospect from the rear was any- 
thing but attractive. There was a conglom- 
erate disarrangement of rubbish, and lumber, 
and dirt, such as the passer-by on the street 
never would have dreamed could be the back- 
ground of so fair a front. Side by side with 
the lots in question were others so tidy and neat 
that the rear could have exchanged places with 
the front without damage to the attractiveness 
of the street. 

Now all this is a parable which teaches that 
there are two views of life — the front and the 
rear. The lots with rubbish in the back yard 
are types of duplicity and sham; the ones with 
rear and front equally clean are symbols of 
openness and sincerity. When the Psalmist ut- 
tered the text he had in mind what might be 
termed in homely language, the back yard of 
life. He knew that a thing to be really clean 
must be all clean; he prayed for deliverance 
from the sins which are kept in the background; 

lOO 



The Back Yard 



he yearned for a heart that would not only 
look fair, but bear investigation. The subject 
is only another way of saying * 'hidden faults and 
secret sins.'' 

People whose back yards will not bear in- 
spection usually try to interest visitors in the 
front view. All this is folly, for the time spent 
exhibiting the disguise might be sufficient to set 
the whole house in order; besides, such persons 
must live in constant fear lest somebody back 
in past the rear some time. The hypocrite lives 
in guilty dread that his mask will be found out. 
As long as he is conscious that there is trash 
upon his premises, he is ill at ease in the pres- 
ence of one whose yard is clean. As a conse- 
quence he begins to dodge and skulk and to 
avoid the man of open heart. One is known 
by the company he keeps. 

It is impossible for any man to be at peace 
with God the background of whose character 
is polluted with sin. Jesus pronounced His most 
scathing anathemas against hypocrisy. If the 

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Almighty is ever intolerant it must be with him 
whose heart does not ring true; whose soul is 
filled with dark deeds and secret sin. The out- 
side counts for little when the inside is unclean. 
It is possible to fool the world for a little while, 
but before God appraises the value of a man, 
He walks all around the lot. 

The character that is not equally fair on 
all sides needs a cleaning up. The first thing 
necessary toward the beautifying of a garden 
is to clear the ground of trash ; then comes both 
care and cultivation and the planting of the 
seeds, the growths from which shall afterward 
adorn it. The first prayer the heart should 
make is, '* Clear thou me from hidden faults," 
but let that heart remember that God will move 
no refuse that the soul can oust itself. Paul 
must plant and Apollos must water before God 
can give the increase. The first act in working 
out one's own salvation is to cart away the 
rubbish from the back yard of his life. 

It is worth while to be clean clear through. 

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The Back Yard 



A complete renovation may be necessary to' 
make the heart a place where God delights to 
dwell. O, Soul, sick with secret sin, look unto 
God ; He is the health of thy countenance ! Thy 
clothing can only be of wrought gold when thou 
art all glorious within. When thy heart is clean 
and thy spirit right the garden of thy life will 
be the Paradise of God. 



103 



STRAYED SHEEP 

" AH we, like sheep, have gone astray ; we have turned 
every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the 
iniquity of us all.— /5^r^^ tiii, 6. 

'* If a man have an hundred sheep and one of them be 
gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go 
into the mountains, and seek that which is gone astray ?'* — 
Si* Matthe<D> x^iii, 12* 

** My people have been lost sheep ; their shepherds 
have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away 
on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill, 
they have forgotten their resting place." — Jeremiah i, 6, 

** I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep and am 
known of mine." — Si* John x, 14* 

** Away on the mountains wild and bare, 
Away from the tender Shepherd's care." 

One of the most beautiful figures in the 
Bible is that which represents the Lord as shep- 
herd and His people as sheep. A good shep- 
herd knows his sheep by name and misses even 
one when anything has happened to It. There 
is a sense in which with respect to the heart it is 
a compliment to man to be likened to a sheep. 

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Strayed Sheep 



There is a certain kindness in the statement, "All 
we like sheep have gone astray." It is as if 
our wandering were due more to ignorance of 
what were best than a wilful desire to do what 
ought not to be done. And yet, when the 
Prophet says, "We have turned every one to 
his own way,'* there is a suggestion that the 
sheep feels that he knows better than the shep- 
herd where he can find the most satisfying pas- 
turage and turns to choose his own way. Stu- 
pidity that leads to destruction is bad enough, 
but, O, the criminality of the choice that de- 
liberately turns toward death! 

Strayed is a mild word. It does not indi- 
cate wilfulness so much as an easy-going indif- 
ference. It suggests a gradual separation from 
the flock. At first the wanderer seems to be 
at a safe distance; it can see and hear the shep- 
herd and the rest of the flock : but little by little 
the distance increases, and when the day is done 
there is a sheep lost in the darkness where it is 
subject to the mercy of wild beasts of prey. 

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There are many directions in which the sheep 
may stray. The danger is universal. There is a 
significance in that word "all" that touches every 
one. Some of the wanderers are still within 
sound of the Shepherd's voice, and some have 
gone so far that they can not even see Him. O, 
how blessed to know that the Good Shepherd 
will seek out the lost ones and carry them back I 
Lost sheep always begin by straying; no 
sheep ever tried to lose himself. Straying is 
dangerous business; before they know it, the 
sheep have gone farther than they thought. No 
man ever set out to be a hardened sinner. No 
soul deliberately loses itself. The road to per- 
dition branches from the way of righteousness 
by an angle so small that the traveler may not 
realize for some time that he is really off the 
track, but once on the by-path every step takes 
him farther from the path that leads to life. 
The danger point is where sin is all but imper- 
ceptible. All that a soul needs to do to become 
lost is simply to stray. 

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Strayed Sheep 



The attitude of the Good Shepherd toward 
the sheep which have strayed Is tender and 
beautiful. He goes into the desert and over 
rough places to find them. He is more anxious 
about the lost ones than the ones which have 
never strayed. When He finds the poor, bleat- 
ing, shivering, starving weakling, He takes it 
in His arms and carries it in His bosom. O, 
Soul, you who have strayed only to the out- 
skirts of the green pastures, Listen! Beyond 
are desert sands and rocky hills and perilous 
steeps and ravenous beasts. Stay, then, within 
sight of the Shepherd and within hearing of 
His voice. He will lead you into fresh fields 
of tender pasture, and cause you to lie down 
beside waters of restful peace. Thou shalt not 
want. O, Soul, thou who hast strayed far, far 
beyond the Shepherd's call, *'sick and helpless 
and ready to die," cry out if only feebly, for it 
may be the Shepherd shall pass that way and 
hear thy voice and take thee home again ! 



107 



THEORY AND PRACTICE 

" Having a form of godliness, but denying the power 
thereof."— 2 Timothy Hi, 5* 

** Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father 
is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, 
and to keep himself unspotted from the world/' — St» ^ames 
rV 27. 

** If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do» 
chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' 
palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions; 
I can easier teach twenty what were goo4 to be done than be 
one of the twenty to follow mine own instructions." — 
*'Porti3L, " in '* Merchant of Venice. " 

** Most men take least notice of what is plain, as if that 
were of no use ; but puzzle their thoughts and lose them- 
selves in those vast depths and abysses which no human 
understanding can fathom." — Sherlock. 

These are days when purity is at a pre- 
mium. We hear a great deal about pure food 
laws and of investigation of fraud and misrep- 
resentation. The ban of public contempt is on 
all adulteration. The spirit of reformation is 

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Theory and Practice 



In the air and the gospel of commercial honesty 
is being proclaimed from the altar of the execu- 
tive mansion and the hearthstone of the low- 
liest cottager, and please God, the day Is not 
far distant when civic unrighteousness shall be- 
come so loathsome that It will be cast out for- 
ever from the business transactions of men. 
So long as business is tainted, religion Is bound 
to be corrupted. If the one goes down it drags 
the other with it. The test for purity must, 
therefore, Include religion, and the basis of the 
inquiry into man's relations with his Maker must 
ever be found in the practical affairs of life. 

The standard by which purity Is tested is 
not relative, but absolute. Quality must reach 
a certain definite degree before It Is pure. This 
is as true of religion as of anything else which 
it Is possible to adulterate. There are certain 
rules by which a chemical analysis can be made, 
but the only way to get at a man's religion to 
apply the test is to take a piece of his life and 
reduce it to Its elements. One thing is certain, 

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that his religion can not rise above the spirit 
which dominates his business life. Pure religion 
IS a practical thing. The religion condemned 
by prophets and stigmatized by the Savior is 
the religion of form and unpracticed theories. 

To lay stress on the form and to deny the 
power is to mistake religiousness for religion. 
The former is only a susceptibility to the mystic 
elements of religion, especially religious feeling 
apart from its duties; the latter is a belief 
binding the spiritual nature of man to a super- 
natural Being on whom he is conscious that he 
IS dependent, and is the practice that springs out 
of such a relation. The religion of too many 
people is a theory that they never have tried to 
practice. The religious theorist always insists 
that others shall conform to his self-invented 
standards. 

The dogmas of men sometimes differ from 
the doctrines of God. A Church member is not 
always a Christian. The denominational bigot 
IS always a Pharisee. The practice of religion 

no 



Theory and Practice 



establishes doctrines based upon experience. He 
only understands the doctrine of Repentance 
who has repented. The doctrine of Divine Son- 
ship is established when some poor soul can feel 
that God accepts his service and that he is His 
child. The hard thing is not to know what to 
do, but to do what we know. An ounce of 
practice is worth a ton of theory. Faith, if it 
hath not works, is dead. One shows his faith 
by his works. Soul, thy religion is vain if thou 
art only theoretically related to God! What 
thou dost to thy brother man is as if It were 
done to God. The test of a man's religion is 
in his works and life. 



Ill 



HOLDING FAST 

" That which ye have already hold fast till I come. He 
that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him 
will I give powQr."—Re^eUtion it, 25, 26. 

" The conditions of conquest are always easy. We 
have but to toil awhile, endure awhile, believe always, and 
never turn back." — Simms, 

"Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy 
crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the 
temple of my God,"— RcveUtion Hi, tt, 12. 

** If a man has any brains at all, let him hold on to his 
calling, and, in the grand sweep of things, his turn will come 
at last."— PP^. McCune. 

** He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
saved."— 5^. M^tthe^ xxi<o, J3. 

If greatness could be obtained by a single 
effort, no one would be unwilling to pay the 
price. But greatness does n't often come sud- 
denly, and when It does It does n't often stay. 
Success In any line Is achieved by holding fast 

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Holding Fast 



to what one has and by working for dear life 
for a little more ; by keeping at it and by never 
giving up — the name for such a method Is per- 
severance. 

If perfection of heart could be gotten in a 
day or purchased at a bargain counter, no one 
would be without It. But perfection does n't 
fall from the skies; it lies at the top of a sun- 
crowned hill and is reached by a roadway diffi- 
cult and steep. So much time is required to 
reach its heights that many a soul, like Moses, 
has died in sight of the promised land. Happy 
is he who once in a while gets a glimpse of the 
hill-top; who holds his own and climbs a little 
higher every day, for the will is taken for the 
deed and to be reaching for the prize counts 
the same as if one reached It. To be God's 
man, to hold fast what one has, and to be 
faithful unto death. Is to have a vantage ground 
from which one may step clear Into heaven, 
whether his grave be on the mountain top or 
on the mountain side. 

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With reference to the higher things in life 
men are usually exhorted to get, but this text 
advises them to keep. It suggests a possibility 
of losing what one already has, if he be not 
careful. It hints at the necessity of defensive 
warfare lest another take one's crown. Getting 
religion is important, but keeping it is equally 
so. The moment one resolves on a life of right- 
eousness he enters a contest in which Evil chal- 
lenges his right to his crown every step of the 
way. The most dangerous enemy is a thief. 
One is not half so liable to have his virtue 
wrested from him as stolen. 

The godly life must be one of continual 
watchfulness. The righteous man must have 
a guard on duty all the time. The tourist who 
visits the home of the President of France finds 
a guard stationed at each corner of the walled 
enclosure surrounding the house ; it is a guarded 
dwelling ! Man is obliged to set a watch-tower 
at the outposts of his very heart to protect it 
against the inroads of unwelcome guests. 

114 



Holding Fast 



** My soul be on thy guard, 
Ten thousand foes arise, 
The hosts of sin are pressing hard, 
To draw thee from the skies." 

The crown is only for the one who endures 
unto the end and is faithful. Perseverance al- 
ways wins the race, as many a parable teaches. 
It IS told of King Bruce, the founder of the 
Scottish monarchy, that once when greatly dis- 
couraged and about to give up the idea of free- 
ing Scotland from the English, he and some of 
his men took refuge in a barn. As he sat there 
thinking of impending defeat, he saw a spider 
trying to fasten his web to a beam. Twelve 
times the insect tried, but did not give up, and 
the thirteenth time succeeded. It was enough; 
King Bruce had learned his lesson, and he arose 
and tried until he drove the enemy from his 
country. Even greater was the lesson Timour 
learned when he saw the ant attempt to climb a 
wall with a load much larger than itself. Sixty- 
nine times it tried and failed, but the seventieth 

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time It conquered. God helps saints who per- 
severe. An Indian who had caught the genius 
of a faithful life sang his conviction in this 
simple verse: 

" Go on, go on, go on, go on, 
Go on, go on, go on. 
Go on, go on, go on, go on. 
Go on, go on, go on." 

One must be sure even of his last step. It 
is not enough to be faithful in spots and at some 
times. One must be steadfast; he must hold 
fast to the goodness which he already has. It 
IS a common fault to be very zealous for a little 
time and then gradually to lose enthusiasm. The 
world needs men who *^hold out faithful." Too 
many persons are like the boy who was study- 
ing a lesson that required some time. He be- 
gan in earnest and for a while was all-absorbed. 
But a bright-colored butterfly came flitting by, 
and he closed his book and began to chase the 
insect. How easily one may be turned from 
his real purpose! Beware! Hast thou a little 

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Holding Fast 



faith ? Hold It fast ! "To him that overcometh 
and keepeth My works to the end, will I give 
power," saith the Lord, your God. 

" Ne'er think the victory won, 
Nor lay thine armor down : 
The work of faith will not be done 
Till thou obtain the crown." 



117 



SOUR GRAPES 

" What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning^ 
the land of Israel, saying. The fathers have eaten sour 
grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge ? " — Ezekiel 

"The most important thought I ever had was that of 
my individual responsibility to God," — Daniel Webster. 

" It is nowhere said either in the Old Testament or the 
New that God visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the 
children, except where the children obstinately persist in 
imitating the iniquities of the fathers." — Words^worth. 

" All souls are Mine ... the soul that sinneth, it 
shall die ; but if a man be just and do that which is lawful 
and right ... he shall surely live."— -The Word of God. 

The text is the statement of a popular prov- 
erb that had gained currency in the later years of 
the kingdom of Judah. This theory of retribu- 
tion had taught that the sin of a father could 
be transmitted to his son, and that the child, 
therefore, was often punished by Providence for 
the guilt of his parent. Previous to the time 

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Sour Grapes 



of Ezekiel the family or tribe was looked upon 
as a unity whose individual members were In- 
volved in the actions of the head. So the whole 
family of Achan is made to perish for the sin 
of their father; and the sons of Saul expiated 
their father's crime long after he was dead. It 
was the conviction of the Jews that the calamity 
of the captivity was due to the sins of Manas- 
seh. They therefore excused themselves from 
blame on the ground that the sins for which 
they suffered were not their own. 

The prophet here breaks with the idea that 
the fate of the child is necessarily dependent 
upon the deeds of the parent. This setting aside 
of the supposed truth of the prevalent proverb 
is Ezekiel's most characteristic contribution to 
theology. He Introduced the thought that God 
does not deal with men en masse, but Individ- 
ually, and that each man's destiny corresponds 
to his own character regardless of what may or 
may not have been his family antecedents. 

The teaching of the proverb was not in 

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harmony with natural law. In the realm of 
nature and of fact if a man eat sour grapes his 
own are the teeth to be set on edge. In the 
moral sphere, according to the proverb, a man 
might eat sour grapes throughout his life and 
bring upon himself no evil, while the conse- 
quence of his sinful life might fall upon his 
children. Our sense of justice rebels at such 
a thought as that. We, in the light of the 
clearer day, can not help but feel that each in- 
dividual stands in immediate relation to God; 
that this position gives man independent per- 
sonal worth; and that one's destiny depends 
upon his own free actions. 

Each individual is responsible for his own 
acts, and for his alone. He is consequently re- 
warded according to his merit. So far as his 
relation to the past is concerned he is under 
the obligation of living up to his ancestry if it 
were good, and of redeeming it if it were bad. 

**He that doeth righteousness is righteous'* 
IS the sum of EzekiePs teaching. The soul that 

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Sour Grapes 



sinneth shall die, even though it be the scion of 
a godly parentage. Eternal justice will be meted 
out on the basis of what men have done and 
the principles which have governed their lives. 
After God's method of dealing with folks, 
the old proverb would have to say that the per- 
son who eats sour grapes will find his own teeth 
set on edge. The curse of the life of a sinful 
parent may overshadow the life of his child 
and the blessing of a worthy sire fall like a bene- 
diction on his offspring, but the fact still re- 
mains that neither guilt nor virtue can ever be 
transmitted. One either stands or falls on the 
virtues or defects of his individual soul. Per- 
sonality has a divine significance. Each man 
must answer for himself to God and each will 
receive his own reward. 



121 



PAYING BACK 

** Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me." 
— Proverbs xxi^, 29. 

** By taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy; 
but in passing over it he is superior." — Bacon* 

** Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye 
and a tooth for a tooth ; but I say unto you, Resist not evil." 
—Si. Matthew <v, 38, 39. 

** He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker 
than thyself. If weaker, Spare him, if stronger, Spare 
thyself. ' ' — Seneca.. 

'* Render to no man evil for evil." — Romans xii, 
17. {R. V.) 

The statement of St. Augustine that "The 
command, thou shalt give life for life, eye 
for eye, tooth for tooth, was not given to excite 
the fires of hatred but to restrain them," helps 
to a clear interpretation of the text. It was not 
an urging to "get even," but a demand that 
one should not any more than "get even." Re- 

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Paying Back 



venge has never been satisfied with repaying 
only as much injury as it has received. This 
law, then, was for the purpose of setting a limit 
on immoderate and unjust vengeance. It Is a 
forward step. It is justice asserting itself by 
saying, **You have a right to do unto others 
as others have done unto you, but in nowise 
shall the injury returned be greater than the 
wrong received — it shall be only eye for eye, 
tooth for tooth.'' 

The author of the Proverbs, anticipating the 
morality of the Sermon on the Mount, an- 
nounces the higher law of Mercy which de- 
clares, **Thou shalt not return any Injury for 
wrongs received, but thou shalt forgive and re- 
turn good for evil." Justice is better than un- 
bridled license, but mercy Is an attribute of God 
Himself. The crowning precept of the advanc- 
ing scale is Love. It Is bad to be unjust; it is 
good to be just and to give no more injury than 
we get; It Is better to be merciful and to for- 
give ; it is best to love your enemies, to do good 

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to those who hate you, and to pray for those 
who despitefully use you and persecute you. 

It seems that there has always and every- 
where been in human nature an elemental hate 
that takes a sort of fiendish delight in the mis- 
fortune of enemies. The Psalmist speaking of 
those who had compassed him about said, "Let 
burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast 
into the fire ; into the deep pit that they rise not 
again." Even Jeremiah could say of his ene- 
mies, "Lord, Thou knowest all their counsel 
against me to slay me ; forgive not their iniquity, 
neither blot out their sin from Thy sight; but 
let them be overthrown before Thee; deal Thou 
with them in the time of Thine anger." Still, 
men seem to delight in the downfall of rivals; 
still, the act of vengeance is perfomed, the bit- 
ter retort given, the abusive letter written ; still, 
men resort to all kinds of meanness to "get 
even" and to "pay back.^^ My soul, do not 
usurp thy Maker's place! Vengeance belongs 
to God- It is not thy prerogative to "pay back." 

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Paying Back 



The soul never appears so strong; never 
enjoys such satisfying delight; never so thor- 
oughly overcomes all opposition as when it 
foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an in- 
jury. The happiness of revenge is a diabolical 
happiness. Kindness will completely overcome 
an enemy and often change him to a friend. In 
an atmosphere of pity personal resentment al- 
ways dies. No one who realizes how much there 
is to pity in the world can have a place for 
vengeful feelings. Whittier has touchingly set 
the truth in these pathetic lines: 

" My heart was heavy, for its trust had been 
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong; 
So turning gloomily from my fellow-men, 
One summer Sabbath-day I strolled among 
The green mounds of the village burying place ; 
Where pondering how all human love and hate 
Find one sad level ; and how soon or late. 
Wronged and wrong-doer, each with meekened face, 
And cold hands folded over a still heart. 
Pass the green threshold of a common grave. 
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart, 
Awed for myself, and pitying my race, 

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Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave, 

Swept all my pride away, and, trembling, I forgave." 

Man's duty of forgiveness is based upon his 
need of God's forgiveness. He who does not 
forgive his fellows need not expect God's par- 
don. General Oglethorpe once said to Wesley, 
*'I never forgive." ''Then, I hope, sir," said 
Wesley, "you never sin." Only the brave know 
how to forgive. How rare the souls which can 
say, "Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do!" Little hearts hold grudges 
and pay back dirt. Great hearts live above the 
vice of vengeance in the calm fellowship of their 
regnant Lord. "Overcome evil w^ith good." 



126 



LIFE FILLED FULL 

" I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.'*— 5f» M^tthe^ 

(Note.— The Greek infinitive, "plerosai," translated in both the 
authorized and revised versions, " to fulfill," means when literally trans- 
lated, "to fill or make full ; to satisfy; to complete.** A very suggestive 
translation of the text might therefore be, ** Icame not to destroy ^ hut to fill 
fulir) 

** Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the 
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." — Ephe- 
stans vv, t3* 

" For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, . . . that ye, being rooted and 
grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints 
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and 
to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge, that ye 
might be filled with all the fullness of God."— Ephestans iii, 
H, 17-19. 

There has always been in the world a great 
deal of unintelligent prejudice against the king- 
dom of God. Christ was not understood by 
His contemporaries. One of the first things the 

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Son of man was called upon to do was to cor- 
rect misconceptions of Himself and His office. 
Many people still hold erroneous ideas of what 
IS meant by being His followers. When the 
Savior came He found that the people had dei- 
fied the law and the prophets. They only knew 
the false and unsatisfying peace of ritual. They 
were laboriously trying to make their way to 
heaven by keeping the letter of the command- 
ments and at the same time neglecting mercy, 
judgment, and truth. They did not seem able 
to grasp the thought that a principle can govern 
action. They had to have a literal regulation 
covering each specific deed or problem. They 
therefore thought that Jesus was about to do 
away with the law when He announced a few 
declarations which He said embraced the whole 
realm of conduct. Many Christians to-day are 
so enslaved by the letter that they must have a 
rule for every little act of life. O, Soul, enter 
the larger freedom! Get the spirit of Christ 
within and then do what seemeth good ! 

128 



Life Filled Full 



The religion of Christ destroys nothing 
worth saving. It makes the individual con- 
science the judge of what is worth the while, but 
it does demand an intelligent decision. Its pur- 
pose is ever to enlarge one's usefulness and to 
amplify his powers. When the spirit of the 
Master comes into a life it enriches every worthy 
element in it. It fulfills it as the noon the dawn. 
The noon is dawn filled full of sunlight. It ful- 
fills it as the man the child. Manhood is child- 
hood filled full. Christlikeness is life at its best. 

One ought to be concerned about the con- 
tents of his life. A life filled with rubbish is 
worse than an empty life. It is impossible to fill 
a life with good things until it be emptied of 
the bad. What a pity that some souls will not 
suffer the trash to be cleared away! They 
would not feel at home if their hearts were 
clean. Christ came to cleanse man's heart and 
then to fill it full. O, the wealth of a life that 
God endows! Love is affluent! It has every- 
thing and abounds. 

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The Christian faith teaches the measure of 
a full-grown man. It stands for the completest 
possible maturity of the physical, mental, and 
moral powers of life. Its business is not to 
make men narrow but truly broad ; it would have 
them know good whenever and wherever they 
see it and to comprehend the all-expansiveness 
of the mercy of the Lord. It seeks to fill life 
full of right. 

A life filled full is a life symmetrical, rich 
in worthy achievement, grand in lofty pur- 
poses, and complete in healthy wholeness. It is 
sane, settled, balanced, fixed. It is truly holy 
because truly whole. It is the life God meant 
His child to live. You can never be full-grown 
till your life is filled clear full. No one but God 
can ever fill it full. He is ready now. Are you ? 



130 



THE FRATERNITY OF SORROW 

'* That I may know Him . . . and the fellowship o£ 
His suffering." — Phitippians Hi, W. 

" There is no flock, however watched and tended, 
But one dead lamb is there ! 
There is no fireside, howsoever defended, 
But has one vacant chair !" 

— LongfeUcyw* 

**Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, work- 
eth for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 
— 2 Corinthians iv, /7. 

** Never morning wore to evening but some heart did 
break." — Tennyson* 

** There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor cry- 
ing, neither shall there be any more pain." — Re^eUiion xxi, 4, 

It is not wise, either for the sake of self or 
others, to nurse our grief or harp upon our sor- 
rows. Melancholy is the result of brooding 
over troubles, and pessimism comes from think- 
ing wholly on the ills of life. On the other hand, 
it ought to be said that the mere thinking on 

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health and soundness does not destroy the fact 
of pain ; that an assumed cheerfulness may only 
cover a hidden canker ; and that the divinest op- 
timism is often only the fruit of a courage strong 
enough to keep sweet in spite of bitterness, fail- 
ure, and loss. 

It is well sometimes to look life squarely in 
the face; to behold its portrait in the somber 
hues; to see the shades as well as lights, and 
to get if possible the right perspective. In the 
presence of the picture unembellished, we grow 
sympathetic and feel the bond that binds us to 
our fellow-man ; we behold ourselves as we view 
others ; we seem to become a part of earth's joys 
and sacrifice, its triumphs and its blessed hopes. 
It is well that we should 

'' Share our mutual woes, 
Our mutual burdens bear." 

We dare not overlook the fact that life has cares 
and anxieties, burdens and trials, and the sad- 
dest part of it all is that they are not the ex- 
ception, but the rule. 

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The Fraternity of Sorrow 



It Is none the less true, though we fain 
would forget it, that ''never morning wore to 
evening but some heart did break;" and that 

" There is no flock, however watched and tended. 
But one dead lamb is there ! 
There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, 
But has one vacant chair!'* 

In the face of the indubitable evidence of obser- 
vation and experience we are under the neces- 
sity of acknowledging that we belong to the fel- 
lowship of pain and that we are members of the 
fraternity of sorrow. There are no eyes which 
have not wept, no hearts which have not bled; 
there are no shoulders which have not borne 
burdens, no feet which were never tired nor 
weary; there is no life entirely free from pain, 
and no soul which does not carry some load of 
grief. We do not live long until we wear a 
crown of thorns, nor go far until we come to 
Calvary. We belong to a fellowship of suffer- 
ing. 

Sorrow is a part of the great school or 

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scheme by which God trains and strengthens our 
hearts. The Priest said to Evangeline after she 
had sought long and patiently for Gabriel and 
had refused to give up the quest: 

Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance 

is godlike. 
Therefore accomplish thy labor of love, till thy heart 

is made godlike, 
Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more 

worthy of heaven/' 

The souFs refinement and glory depend upon its 
triumphant passage through fire and flood. 
Martyrdom In the eyes of the world looks like 
failure, but it shall not go without its reward. 
It will be worth while to belong to the white- 
robed throng concerning whom it shall be said, 
**These are they which came out of great trib- 
ulation/' There is a sense in which one may 
actually glory in tribulation. We are refined by 
the tests of life. 

" Then welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth*s smoothness rough, 

Each sting that bids nor sit, nor stand, but go. 
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The Fraternity of Sorrow 



Be thy joy three-parts pain ; 
Strive, and hold cheap the strain ; 

Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never 
grudge the throe." 

In our knov^ledge of trouble and sorrow we 
find our common lot. No human fortification 
is proof against the truth of the statement, 
"The days of our years are three-score years 
and ten, and if by reason of strength they be 
four-score years, yet is there strength, labor, 
and sorrow." The differences between men are 
largely in the incidents of life and not In the 
experiences of the heart. There are differences 
in endowments, and the difficulty is that some 
men get stuck up over the fact that they have 
been entrusted with talents and fail to recognize 
the responsibility of the trust. The bond of 
brotherhood Is always weakened when we em- 
phasize our dissimilarities and fail to note the 
things we have In common. 

There are times when the heart finds great 
comfort In the fellowship of suffering. "Misery 

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loves company," and the soul craves the sym- 
pathy of those who have borne similar burdens 
and have gone through the heat of the day. 
Much as it is often prized, human sympathy has 
its limitations and human help fails beyond a 
certain point. There are times when every nor- 
mal man is driven to his knees before God be- 
cause he feels there is nowhere else to go. It 
rejoices the heart to know that when all other 
resources fail, it may find succor in the fellow- 
ship of the One who was *'a man of sorrows 
and acquainted with grief." 

The blessedness of knowing Christ is to be- 
long to the fellowship of His suffering as well 
as to be a partaker of His most blessed peace 
and joy. He endured the cross; He was made 
a perfect example for us through suffering. He 
did not discountenance pain; He groaned with 
its hurt. He drank the cup of sorrow to its 
dregs; He became acquainted with earth's trials 
while knowing heaven's balm. He speaks from 
the threshold of the Father's house and says 

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The Fraternity of Sorrow 



to the weary, heavy-laden one, "Come, I will 
give you rest," and to all grief-rent, bleeding, 
broken hearts : 

"Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish; 
Come to the mercy-seat, fervently kneel ; 
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your 
anguish ; 
Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can not heal." 



137 



I WON'T DO IT 

" A certain man had two sons : and he came to the first 
and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. He an- 
swered and said, I will not.* '—St Matthew xxi, 28, 29^ 

** Whatsoever he saith unto you, do i\.,**—St J^ohn it, 5. 

" Do God's will as if it were thy will, and He will 
accomplish thy will as if it were His own.*' — Rahhi Gamaliel. 

" God can do nothing when the will is wrong ; when you 
get your will right, you will find that God always has been on 
your side.'*— ^o^epA Parker* 

The text is taken from the parable which 
represents two sons — one, rude but afterward 
thoughtful and penitent, and finally obedient; 
another, polite but afterward thoughtless, in- 
sincere, and finally disobedient. The first rep- 
resents the common sinner; the second, the 
Pharasaic religionist. The emphasis of the 
picture is laid on the fact that it is not so much 
what men say as what they do that counts. We 

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I Won^t Do It 



tremble at the thought of the straightness of the 
way and the narrowness of the gate when we 
remember the words, **If the righteous scarcely 
be saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly 
appear?" but, here we are taught that the stub- 
born sinner that changes his mind and repents 
and brings forth fruits meet for the same shall 
enter the kingdom before the professing Chris- 
tian who makes polite promises and never does 
anything. The ultimate test which shall try 
men's lives will be on the basis of what they 
have done rather than on what they have said. 
"I won't do it," is the reply that the sinner 
makes to God's invitations, and to His com- 
mand, "Go, work to-day in My vineyard." He 
claims to have ''reasons" for so doing. He says 
that he is not ready; that there are hypocrites in 
the Church ; that he is as good as many who pro- 
fess more. If argued out of his positions and 
shown that they are only "excuses," he will prob- 
ably say, "I will, if some one else will." When, 
however, he gets in earnest and is willing to act 

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on his own initiative, God will honor his con- 
science. Though he be stubborn and disobe- 
dient, if he change his mind and repent, the 
Heavenly Father will forgive him and make 
his heart as clean as if he had never sinned. 

"I won't do it," is the reply of many a 
Christian to the call of duty. He, too, has cer- 
tain ^'reasons" for his reply. He has n't time, 
he IS not capable ; he would rather not try than 
to try and fail; anyway, he has opinions of his 
own on the matter. O shame ! Thrice shame, 
Christian, to sing, "I '11 go where you want me 
to go; I '11 say what you want me to say; I '11 
do what you want me to do;" and then when the 
Master says, **Go, work to-day in My vineyard," 
to reply by actions, if not by word, ^'I won't 
do it!" God has more respect for the con- 
scienceless sinner than the conscienceless saint. 
It is better to say, "I won't do it," and then re- 
pent, than to say, '*! will," and then not keep 
the promise. The person who has thrashed out 
the problem of duty until he obeys, on the 

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I Won't Do It 



ground of conscience, Is always of some conse- 
quence. It is easier to deal with an opponent 
in open controversy than with the moral coward 
who agrees and promises and never once fulfills. 
The Church is damaged by members who say 
*'I will" and act '1 won't.'' 

Deeds are better than words. Talk is 
cheap; work is costly. Both heaven and earth 
pay premiums for men who talk little and do 
much. Two architects were candidates for the 
erection of a temple at Athens. One discoursed 
at length on different orders of architecture and 
on how the temple should be built. The other 
only remarked that what his brother had spoken 
he could do, and was awarded the contract. No 
person was ever called to be a Christian who did 
not hear as soon as he listened enough to hear 
at all, **Go, workT' God help the man who 
says "I will" to do it, and him who says "I 
won't" to change his mind. 



141 



LETTING THE TRUTH SLIP 

** Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to 
the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should 
let them slip." — Hebre<ivs tt, t (Old Version). 

** Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to 
the things which were heard, lest haply we drift away from 
Xh^m,'*— {Revised Version*) 

** Therefore it is necessary for us more earnestly to hold 
in mind the things heard, lest at some time or other we let 
them leak out.'' — [Suggestive Translation*) 

NOTE. — ** This is a metaphor taken from unstanch 
vessels ; the staves not being close together, the fluid being 
put into them leaks through the chinks and crevices. Super- 
ficial hearers lose the benefit of the word preached as the 
unseasoned vessel does the fluid; nor can any one hear to 
the saving of his soul unless he give most earnest heed." 
— Adam Clarke* 

** The best ground, untilled and neglected, soonest runs 
out into rank weeds. A man of knowledge that is either 
negligent or uncorrected can not but grow wild and godless." 
— Bishop HalU 

The first word of the text arrests our at- 
tention. It Indicates that what follows is neces- 

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Letting the Truth Slip 



sarily based on what goes before. The author 
has stated an argument and reached a conclu- 
sion. He now declares an obligation and forti- 
fies it with additional proof. The gist of the 
argument runs thus: God, who revealed His 
truth through blundering men at sundry times 
and in divers manners until the world caught 
the inspiration and worshiped Him, has at last 
spoken through His own Son a clear message 
of unmistakable value. Therefore we ought to 
give most earnest heed. For if the word of an- 
gels and prophets was so confirmed by divine 
authority that no transgressor escaped the pen- 
alty of his offense under such preaching, how 
shall we escape if we neglect the gospel of the 
Son of God? 

There have always been persons who could 
not understand the force of "divers manners;" 
people of such contracted powers as to render 
them utterly incapable of recognizing the gos- 
pel in its varied phases or when it appears in 
any other than the one form in which they have 

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come to know it. They seem to forget that God 
has from the beginning been under the necessity 
of unfolding His truth in "divers manners'* be- 
cause of the diverse conditions among those to 
whom the revelation is made; that the real In- 
spiration of the gospel records Is found not in 
similarities, but in dissimilarities ; that the evan- 
gelists, while reporting the same life, did not do 
It phonographically. 

On the assumption that one knows truth 
when he sees it or hears it, and that he gives It 
a respectful consideration, the question Is not 
how he receives it, but how he keeps it ; whether 
the mind holds the truth it hears, or whether the 
heart is like the leaky barrel that lets that which 
Is poured into it out through the cracks. It Is 
one thing to receive truth and another thing to 
retain it. What one gets out of a religious serv- 
ice and keeps depends upon what kind of a 
heart-receptacle he brings to it. He who lets 
the truth slip has no adequate conception of the 
original Spokesman, the importance of His 

144 



Letting the Truth Slip 



message, and the absolute necessity of the salva- 
tion of his own soul. 

The only way to keep from letting the truth 
slip Is to give earnest heed and to hold it in the 
mind. Neglect is all that is necessary to allow 
the truth to slip. It is a great thing to be a 
good listener and to read understandingly, but 
the value of the message received depends upon 
whether one apply it to himself or some one 
else. The real value of the sermon lies not in 
its possession as knowledge, but in Its practice 
as deeds. Loss of ability Is often synonymous 
with being out of practice. It Is an easy thing 
to let the truth slip if you do not watch. Watch ! 



10 



145 



A TREE PLANTED BY THE 
RIVERS OF WATERS 

** He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters/* 
— Ps^lm i, 3. 

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he 
shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." — Psaim xcii, 12* 

** Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose 
hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the 
waters, and that spreadeth out his roots by the river, and 
shall not fear when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; 
and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall 
cease from yielding fruit.' — Jeremiah X'vii, 7, 8* 

** How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, 
Thy tabernacles, O Israel ! 
As valleys are they spread forth. 
As gardens by the river-side. 
As lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted, 
As cedar trees beside the waters." 

— Numbers xxh>, 5, 6. 

It is interesting to note the numerous similes 
by which the Bible characterizes the righteous 
man. He is likened to the sun, the stars, the 

146 



A Tree Planted by the Rivers of Waters 

light; to gold, jewels, treasure, and precious 
stones; to lilies and pomegranates; to lions, 
eagles, sheep, and doves; to mountains and 
never- failing springs; to vines and trees and 
wheat and corn and salt. He is compared with 
everything representing strength and beauty, 
utility and loveliness. He is God's man and is 
in position to command the infinite resources of 
Almightiness. 

In the first Psalm the righteous man is de- 
clared "blessed" and is likened to a ''tree planted 
by the river." The characteristics which bring 
his blessedness are first described negatively. 
He must keep away from certain persons and 
their influence. The graces of the soul can not 
flourish when it is constantly subject to the con- 
taminating power of sinful associations, but are 
rather liable to decay. The progression of the 
decadence is indicated by the words — ^walking, 
standing, sitting. Goodness must needs shun 
the very appearance of Evil. To be on the safe 
side it Is always well to heed the advice: ''Enter 

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not into the path of the wicked, and go not in 
the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, 
turn from it and pass away." 

Negative virtue, however, is mainly valuable 
In proportion as it contributes to the positive. 
The wall around a garden serves a good pur- 
pose when it protects the growths within it. It 
Is a good thing simply to abandon the seat of 
the scornful, but better to be filled with the 
spirit of God. The spirit-filled life hungers 
after righteousness ; it delights in the law of the 
Lord. The trend of one's nature is always 
shown by the direction of his ^'delights.'' He 
who studies God's word to learn God's will, that 
he may do it, finds himself strong to resist temp- 
tation. 

There are three words in the text which In- 
stantly engage the attention — tree, planted, and 
water. The tree has always been an eloquent 
figure to Orientals. The Fall of Eden had to 
do with the fruit of a tree, and the vision of 
Redemption was that of a tree with healing 

148 



A Tree Planted by the Rivers of Waters 

leaves. The Psalmist has added to the image 
of a tree, the thought of ^'planted." His tree 
is no vagrant; its habitat is selected. It is in 
touch with water, the one requisite to turn a 
desert into a garden. Water is the symbol of 
life. To liken a man to '^a tree^ planted by 
rivers of water ^^ is to compliment him highly. 
The good man's life is "blessed" because it 
is deeply anchored in the Word of God. He 
is not exempt from wind and storm, but he has 
the power to outride them. Great fir trees that 
look like kings of the woodland are easily upset 
by the snarling storm because their roots run 
laterally in the surface gravel, while many a 
little sapling striking its roots deep down in 
earth meets the gale and stands unharmed. The 
prevailing fault of the religious life is shallow- 
ness. The consuming passion of commercial 
greed drives men so fast that they do not take 
time to be holy or even to meditate on God's 
holy law. There is a refreshing stream beneath 
the blistering sand of every vale of Baca, and 

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he who will go far enough beneath the surface 
will never fail to find It. 

The good man's life is fed by hidden springs. 
His soul drinks from the deep and ever-flowing 
rivers of God's abounding grace. He has meat 
to eat that the world knows nothing of. The 
Church, with all for which it stands, is a per- 
petual fountain of all-enriching worth. Happy 
the man, the tendrils of whose soul drink from 
its limpid stream of life! He has depth and 
soundness and fructifying power because his 
roots run through the dust of superficial, fleet- 
ing things into the ever-flowing water. By what 
figure art thou characterized — a tree planted by 
the river, or chaff ? 



150 



GOOD CONVERSATION 

** Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge 
among you ? Let him show out of a good conversation his 
works with meekness of wisdom/' — SL ^arnes Hi, /5. 

** To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I 
show the salvation of God." — Psalm i, 25, 

" A single conversation across the table with a wise man 
is worth a month's study of books." — Chinese Proverb* 

** Those who have the true taste of conversation enjoy 
themselves in communicating each other's excellences, and 
not in triumphing over their imperfections." — Addison* 

Benjamin Franklin is the author of the 
statement, '* Conversation warms the mind, en- 
livens the imagination, and is continually start- 
ing fresh game that is immediately pursued and 
taken, which would never have occurred in the 
duller intercourse of epistolary correspondence," 
and the Chinaman, judging from the proverb 
quoted above, seems to have learned that it Is 
good to rub one's brain against another's, pro- 

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vided that other's be wise. Conversation opens 
the door of the soul and lets the inner man out 
and outer men in ; it discovers common ground ; 
it reveals hidden secrets and truths ; it is a mar- 
velous privilege and a fearful responsibility. 

The greatest teachers and the most eminent 
expounders of law, philosophy, and religion 
have always been noted for their conversations. 
The student of comparative religion finds that 
the founders of the great faiths which have 
commanded the attention of the peoples of the 
world were colloquial in their best estates. The 
recorded colloquies of Zoroaster, Buddha, and 
Confucius constitute almost wholly the sacred 
writings of the religions they founded. The 
classical scholar is familiar with the dialogues 
of Plato, the face-to-face discussions of Socrates, 
the sayings of Aristotle, and the discourses of 
the peripatetic philosophers who taught their 
truths as they walked and talked with their pu- 
pils along the streets of Athens and the high- 
ways of Greece. Christ was a great conversa- 

152 



Good Conversation 



tionalist, and His biographers record over one 
hundred interviews between Him and "kings, 
priests, judges, friends, foes, scoffers, inquirers, 
God, angels, and devils." 

One does not converse long with others with- 
out telling them more than he thinks he has and 
without getting more from them than they are 
aware. Be careful ! You may wake some day 
to see your blunders incarnate in another soul. 
There is no need of defining the term; every- 
body knows what is meant by good conversation. 
Unless one^s conscience is miserably depraved it 
will tell him when his conversation is good and 
when the inter-communication is bad. 

Good conversation is the index of a clean 
heart. "If any man offend not in word, the 
same is a perfect man." As the jingle of a coin 
reveals its soundness or exposes it as a counter- 
feit, so man is known by his spoken words. 
Speech, like children, will not deceive, and is 
constantly "telling tales" about the personality 
from which it comes. A woman who called at 

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her neighbor's door was met by the little girl, 
who, as she opened the door, said, '^Mamma 
IS n't at home." "Why, I saw her through the 
window," said the visitor. ''Yes," said the lit- 
tle girl, ''but she saw you first," Words some- 
times unwittingly expose a lying heart. When 
the waters of the stream are sweet, no one will 
suspect that the fountain-head is bitter; and if 
the waters are bitter no one will believe that the 
fountain can be sweet 

Good conversation is always based upon 
"the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 
the truth," and never forgets to season its jus- 
tice with most generous mercy. It scorns tale- 
bearing and considers evil communication con- 
temptible. It regards the gossip as an ill-man- 
nered wretch, with a mouth like the opening of 
a sewer system which empties its foul contents 
into some clear lake and pollutes the waters for 
miles around. In the presence of good conver- 
sation, slang and threadbare puns, and crude and 
silly utterances, and the dirty story with its vile 

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Good Conversation 



suggestiveness, slink away as lizards and vermin, 
and creeping, slimy creatures into holes and 
darkness because they can not bear the light. 

Good conversation always has God as a si- 
lent third party, and often as the speaking and 
listening second. Man may walk and talk with 
his Maker. 

" With Him sweet converse I maintain ; 
Great as He is I dare be free ; 
I tell Him all my grief and pain, 
And He reveals His love to me." 

A little conversation with the Master sets every- 
thing all right. What a blessed thought that 
God will listen to man's stammering prattle; 
yea, that He will stop making a world to bend 
His ear to catch a weak child's whisper ! 

" I saw a little child with bandaged eyes, 
Put up its hand to feel its mother's face; 
She bent and took the tender, groping palms, 
And pressed them to her lips, a little space. 

" I know a soul made blind by its desires, 

And yet its faith keeps feeling for God's face — 
Bend down, O mighty love, and let that faith 
One little moment, touch thy lips of Grace." 

155 



THE DAY'S WORK 

** I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is 
day ; the night cometh, when no man can work»" — ^ohn ix, 4* 

** The taskmasters were urgent, saying, Fulfill your 
works, your daily tasks." (Marginal reading, "a matter of 
a day in his dsiy.'")— Exodus <u, 13. 

**A Christian's spirituality will depend as much upon 
bis work as his work upon his spirituality." — Chalmers, 

'* O blessed work for Jesus ! 
O rest at Jesus' feet ! 

There toil seems pleasure, 
My wants are treasure, 
And pain for Him is sweet. 
Lrord, if I may, 
I 'U serve another day." 

—Anna jR Warner, 

** Neither is this a work of one day or two." — Ezra x^ 13, 



When Jesus and His disciples came across 
the man who was born blind, the question (so 
perplexing to all thoughtful minds), What reg- 
ulates the distribution of suffering? arose. Is 
the rod of suffering a rod of chastisement? If 

156 



The Day's Work 



so, what IS the cause of the fault that makes the 
correction necessary? Is one's affliction neces- 
sarily the result of his own sin, or of the sin of 
his parents, or of the sin of anybody? No one 
knows, except in instances where science is able 
to determine the inevitable consequences of the 
breaking of Nature's laws. With the simple 
sweep of a telling sentence the Lord impresses 
His hearers with the truth that the all-important 
question is not how the man got into the diffi- 
culty, but how he can be helped out. The latter 
may involve the former, but let it ever be re- 
membered that it is one thing to pry into the 
cause of suffering for the mere purpose of locat- 
ing the blame or of exonerating one's self from 
the claims of pity and charity, and it is a wholly 
different thing to inquire into the cause so as 
more effectually to deal with the effect. No 
matter how sin and suffering came, the fact is 
that they are here. Their presence creates an 
opportunity to work for God. To rid the world 
of evil, of wretchedness, of lonely sorrow, of 

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destitution, and disease, is man's plain duty. 
Man, would you work for God, be in your own 
little way eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and 
help to the helpless. 

He who has any real regard for ''the day's 
work" recognizes a purpose in his life and sees 
opportunities as ''he passes by;'' he believes that 
it is worth while to stop to help a person here 
and there. Jesus practically said to His dis- 
ciples: "I am here as a representative of My 
Father, who sent Me, and in the fleeting mo- 
ments of My earthly pilgrimage I must not lose 
an opportunity to fulfill My mission, which is 
to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up 
the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the 
captive, to restore sight to the blind, to proclaim 
the acceptable year and also the day of venge- 
ance of the Almighty, to comfort them that 
mourn, to give beauty for ashes, and the gar- 
ment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.'* 

Every soul is sent into the world with a task. 
Man is God's representative, and his capital is 

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The Day's Work 



a trust. He is not a designer, his business is to 
build according to pattern. His errand is com- 
mensurate with his capability. His personal re- 
sponsibility is based upon his endowment, but 
his endowment is expansive, and he is respon- 
sible for the expanding of it. Every man has 
his day. Each day has its task. The day's work 
must be done in the daytime. Wasted opportu- 
nities can never be redeemed, especially after the 
sun has set. One has well said, 'There are four 
things that come not back; the spoken word, 
the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected 
opportunity." Life is limited, and its days speed 
ever faster to the end. Work while the day 
lasts. No one can work by night who has failed 
to work by day. 



159 



THE HEART'S INCLINATION 

** Incline your heart unto the Lord God." 

— JoshuA xxh), 23 » 

** Almost every one has a predominant inclination to 
which his other desires and affections submit, and which 
governs him, though perhaps with some intervals, through 
the whole course of his life. — Hume, 

** Trust in the Lord with all thy heart; and lean not unto 
thine own understanding." — Proverbs iti, 5, 

** God never accepts a good inclination instead of a good 
action, where that action may be done; nay, so much the 
contrary, that, if a good inclination be not seconded by a 
good action, the want of that action is made so much the 
more criminal and inexcusable." — South, 

** I have inclined my heart to perform Thy statutes." — 
Pssdm cxix, tl2. 

By some strange law persons and things dis- 
cover their affinities. If it were not for the 
blunders of some men and women, the rule 
would be universally true. Vegetation loves the 
light and puts Itself out to show its affection. It 

1 60 



The Heart's Inclination 



will lean toward the grimy window through 
which only the faintest ray can come ; pull itself 
around a corner if only it can catch a glimpse of 
morning, and says, *'If I can not have light, let 
me pine away and die." Positive electricity will 
leap toward Its negative counterpart and strike 
hands in happy greeting and inseparable union. 
The magnetic needle may be dragged out of Its 
peaceful associations, but It knows its place and 
will never cease tugging until it gets back again. 
When the sun looks up over the eastern rim of 
day, its face all ruddy with the blush of morning 
and shining with the radiance of a warm-hearted 
smile, every fairy of the springtime comes out 
to meet him in gay attire. God never meant 
that any bird should fail to find its mate or that 
any soul should lose its way and fail to enter 
heaven. O, pity the folly of men's blundering 
hearts ! Man was made to live with God, and 
can not live without Him. The child, true com- 
pass of the celestial realm pointing ever toward 
the heavenly Polaris, represents the heart's right 
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Quality Folks 



inclination. To men bent with sin and bound 
with its curse, the Master said, "Except ye be 
converted and become as little children, ye can 
not find the way to heaven." 

Every person has a bent. Every heart leans 
toward some attraction. Every soul craves 
somewhat. Every nature prays to some god. 
Every life feels the need of some kind of com- 
panionshlp. Every individual seeks the fellow- 
ship of some other, either better or worse. 
Some are positive in their decisions, and some 
have gone no farther than to lean in certain di- 
rections for certain more or less well-defined rea- 
sons. With reference to a godly life, the last- 
named are in a sort of semi-neutral, disinter- 
ested, passive state — not wholly disinclined, yet 
not particularly inclined. They make religion 
synonymous with denominationalism, and while 
they never have identified themselves with any 
organization, they "lean" toward the Methodist 
Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, or some other, 
as the case may be. Man, woman, halting soul, 

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The Heart's Inclination 



God does not care toward what creed you lean : 
He wants you to incline your heart toward Him ! 

The heart's inclination indicates its tastes. 
What variety in the likes and dislikes of men! 
There are those who seem to relish the coarse 
and degraded, while others delight in the beau- 
tiful and good. Taste is a subjective faculty, 
and may be cultivated and refined, or debased 
and jaded. The appreciation of the classical in 
art, literature, and music Is acquired, and the 
evil habits which mark the decadence of a soul 
are a matter of schooling. One's tastes and the 
whole trend of his life may be changed by both 
education and dissipation. A real desire to 
change for the better is Repentance ; the change 
itself is what we call Conversion. 

The heart's inclination is controlled by its 
choices. He who really chooses draws a sharp 
and well-defined line between what he accepts 
and what he rejects. When the alternatives are 
good and evil, right and wrong, godliness and 
sinfulness, and the line is definitely drawn, you 

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have what is called "a clear conversion." A 
genuine conversion is simply the absolute rejec- 
tion of all evil and the positive acceptance of all 
good, with the divine smile of approval on the 
act. Resolutions are good if they mark well- 
determined limits and are kept for conscience's 
sake. Whether one is inclined to or from the 
right depends upon what his will has chosen. 
Conversion is turning with God's help to the 
north-star course and forsaking all other ways. 
God inclines toward the heart that inclines 
toward Him, but the soul's attitude must be 
hearty, and not simply formal, or It will not 
command His attention. The mere mumbling 
of the formulae of worship and the reciting of 
ritualistic rites are intolerably repulsive to a Be- 
ing who desires rather the spiritual fellowship 
of His children. The Heavenly Father is most 
wonderfully kind and will come a long distance 
to meet a sick heart that leans toward Him. A 
pale, puny little plant leaned toward the window 
to see the light, and the good Sun said, as it 

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The Heart's Inclination 



caressed the drooping, sickly leaves, "I came 
ninety-three million miles to cheer your heart." 
And the little plant blushed a little deeper green 
and felt better. God Is just like the sun. Soul, 
you will never find your real affinity until you 
lean toward Him. Incline your heart toward 
God, and Heavenly Grace will run to meet you. 



165 



PUFFED UP AND BUILT UP. 

"Knowledge pufifeth up, but love buildeth up.** 

— / Corinthians *oiii, /# 

"Conceit may pufif a man up, but never can prop him 
up.*' — Raskin* 

"If its colors were but fast colors, self-conceit would be 
a most comfortable quality. But life is so humbling, morti- 
fying, disappointing to vanity, that the great man*s idea of 
himself gets washed out of him by the time he is forty.'* — 
C Buxton* 

"The brightest blaze of intelligence is of incalculably 
less value than the smallest spark of charity." — W* Ne^ins* 

"It is possible that a man should be so changed by love 
as hardly to be recognized as the same person." — Terence* 

The subject of this text has both a general 
and a particular significance. In general, head- 
power dissociated from heart-power is cold and 
unsympathetic, selfish and exclusive and unchar- 
itable. In particular the text is related to the 

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Puffed Up and Built Up 



question of religious liberty based upon a 
boasted enlightenment on the one hand, and a 
generous love that takes into consideration the 
weakness and foibles of brother-man on the 
other. 

Paul addressed these words to a society 
partly heathen and partly Christian. Many 
questions concerning religious principle and 
practice would naturally arise in such a com- 
munity as this. The statement with reference to 
knowledge and love is part of the answer to a 
letter which the apostle had received from the 
liberal and self-conceited party who had come 
to scorn those who had scruples. The scrupu- 
lous, however, deemed the liberals less godly and 
consistent than themselves. 

A condition of self-satisfied enlightenment 
and supposed self-righteousness which erects a 
barrier between itself and imagined or real 
weakness, is a dangerous and destructive situa- 
tion. One stands on slippery places who only 
possesses a knowledge which puffs him up with 

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self-esteem. Wealth, social or educational ad- 
vantages, position, imagined physical beauty, or 
inherited reputation or blue blood, or other stuff 
for which they were never obliged to work, 
sometimes exalt people with ideas of superior 
self-importance ; but it does n't take much of a 
puncture to flatten such persons out. There are, 
however, certain other qualities which, if builded 
into people, make them solid from the ground 
up and firm with the enduring qualities of eter- 
nal love: the world's battering rams can not 
beat down such a citadel as that. 

The knowledge that puffeth up is ever the 
"little learning," which "is a dangerous thing.'* 
The more deeply men drink at the fountain of 
wisdom, the more is their knowledge tempered 
with humility. Greatness and goodness in the 
last analysis are the same. God is good and 
"God is love," and man Is therefore both wisest 
and best when most filled with the divinest love. 
The great question underlying all service Is not 
so much one of Intellect as one of heart. Hu- 

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Puffed Up and Built Up 



man life needs not so much more information 
as passionate, clinging, constant, self-sacrificing 
love. Love will build up manhood and will fur- 
nish the only solid foundation for all political, 
social, and so-called secular affairs. 

The ideal possession is neither knowledge 
without love nor love without knowledge; not 
more of the one and less of the other, but more 
of both. Combined in most ample measure, 
they form the impregnable fortress of God in 
man. It is only when men know the most and 
love the best that they most fully understand 
the true meaning of liberty. To know God is 
to love Him, and to love Him is to be charitable 
with all His children. 

The Christian life is a beautiful and sym- 
metrical unity. It combines the head and the 
heart. It is something solid, firm, substantial, 
which has been builded out of indestructible ma- 
terial. It is a life governed by principle. It 
carefully distinguishes between the essential and 
the non-essential. It is conscientious. It regards 

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Quality Folks 



the rights of others while demanding its own. 
It both knows and feels. It has enduring ele- 
ments. It is not puffed up, it is built up. It 
has knowledge, and at the same time love. Are 
you a Christian? 



170 



ANGELS' FOOD 

** Man did eat angels' food." — Psalm txxxviii, 25. 

" A fig for your bill of fare ; show me your bill of com- 
pany." — S^ift 

**The features come insensibly to be formed and to as- 
sume their shape from the frequent and habitual expression 
of certain affections of the soul. These affections are marked 
on the countenance ; nothing is more certain than this ; and 
when they turn into habits, they must leave on it durable 
impressions.'' — Rousseau. 

" Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and they 
died. ... I am the bread of life. ... If any man 
shall eat of this bread he shall live forever." — St. John «o6 
48, 49, 51. 

A MORE literal translation of the text would 
probably be, "Man did eat the dainty morsels 
of the princes, or mighty ones." The refer- 
ence, of course, is to the manna that fell in the 
wilderness, but there is a certain subtle suggest- 
iveness in the statement which makes us cry out 
with hunger of heart and with an understanding 

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we can not express in words, *Xord, evermore 
give us this bread!" No one who has ever 
tasted the sweet food of heaven will ever again 
be satisfied with the coarse pabulum of the 
world. He had been nourished on these spir- 
itual riches who said, "O, taste and see that the 
Lord is good!" 

The great storehouse of God is filled with 
all sorts of nourishment for all conditions of 
men — milk for babes, strong meat for toiling 
man, and angels' corn for those who can assim- 
ilate celestial food. He who goes hungry, sins 
against the abundance of his Father's house. 
Many men go hungry because they have no taste 
for what is good, and others have no power to 
appropriate its worth. One may eat out of the 
dish with the Savior, and if he have the heart 
of a Judas he might as well feed upon the coarse 
fodder of the devil's husks. He who dines upon 
the Bread of Life and assimiliates it will find 
himself changed into the likeness of Christ from 
glory to glory. 

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Angels' Food 



He who satisfies his heart-hunger with the 
bounties of God's banqueting-table feasts on 
heavenly manna and knows the taste of angel's 
food. When the things of earth no longer have 
the power to still the cravings of the soul, look 
up by faith and find thy famine relieved by the 
amplitude of the plenteousness of God's good 
things. Hungry soul, and faint, the table is 
ready; you may feed upon the delicacies pre- 
pared for the princes of the Father's house ! 

A careful diet is one of the first prerequisites 
to health. One's condition, physical, mental, 
moral, depends largely upon the food with 
which he nourishes these respective phases of 
his being. It is strange but true that men will 
knowingly feed upon the things which harm 
them. It is easy to tell by one's manner and ap- 
pearance, in whatever realm of life's activities 
you may meet him, in what fields he finds his 
pasture. He who eats angel's food will grow 
angel-like. There are all too many who, recog- 
nizing this truth, are trying to become angelic 

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by feeding on stale manna, having forgotten that 
It must needs be gathered fresh every morning. 
The ancients talked about ambrosia, the im- 
mortality-giving food of the gods. Here is a 
statement in the Book of Truth to the effect that 
men have eaten Bread of Heaven. The Might- 
iest of all the sons of men came, saying : "I am 
the Bread of Life. If any man eat of this bread 
he shall live forever." Blessed fact! Men may 
still eat angel's food ! *Teed on it by faith, and 
may it preserve thee soul and body unto ever- 
lasting life." 



174 



CROOKED WAYS. 

"Such as turn aside unto their crooked ways." — Psalm 
cxx*o, 5. 

"Ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, 
without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, 
among whom ye shine as lights." — PhUippUriB it, 15. 

"Their feet run to evil . • . there is no judgment 
in their goings; they have made them crooked paths." — 
Isaiah lix, 8. 

"I will go before thee and make the crooked places 
straight." — Isaiah xiv, 2* 

"Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain 
and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made 
straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the 
Lord shall be revealed." — Isaiah xt, 4. 

You can't do much with a crooked stick. 
My father once built a bam, in the days when 
It was thought that the frame-work of such a 
structure had to be made of hewn timbers. We 
went out into the woods and hunted for tall, 

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straight trees and saplings out of which to make 
the beams, plates, posts, sleepers, and girders. 
Some of the beams had to be eight inches square 
and forty feet in length — a crooked stick could 
not be used. We backwoods-men know that the 
best stave-bolts, railroad-ties, and fence-rails 
are made from straight, clean stuff. About all 
that can be done with a crooked stick is to cut 
it into fire-wood, and even then it is hard to split. 
Crooked timber is not of much account. 

There are men sometimes who are called 
"poor sticks," which is equivalent to calling 
them '^crooked," for a crooked stick is poor. 
A crooked man, however, is worth less than a 
crooked stick in proportion as a straight man 
is worth more than any stick. It is bad enough 
to be a stick — some men are; but worse to 
be a crooked one. A man's crookedness mani- 
fests itself in his conduct. O, what a pity that 
business, politics, society, and religion have to 
be damaged by the crooked ways of unscrupu- 
lous men and women I 

176 



Crooked Ways 



There are different names for the life- 
quality manifest in those who turn aside from 
the straight road into the bewildering mazes of 
crooked paths. In the commercial world it is 
called dishonesty; in the political, sycophancy; 
in the social, rascality; and in the religious, hy- 
pocrisy. He who walks in crooked roads is the 
owner either of a restless conscience or a dead 
one; he dissipates his strength in by-paths and 
increases the distance between the beginning and 
the end of any worthy achievement in life. 

The first proposition that the student of 

Euclid is called upon to demonstrate is that a 

straight line is the shortest distance between two 

points. This statement is true in the realm of 

the unseen as well as the seen. In a world where 

there are either real or figurative mountains to 

be climbed or tunneled, rivers to be bridged or 

forded, chasms to be crossed or avoided, desert 

stretches without an oasis sprawling across the 

journey, it is not always an easy thing to travel 

from one point to another in a bee-line; but he 
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who would take the straightest road, and there- 
fore the shortest, must recognize that right or 
left from the air-line, even by the breadth of a 
hair, is off the track. 

There is a difference between the person 
who tries to walk straightly, but wabbles on ac- 
count of weakness, and the one who deliberately 
turns aside into crooked ways. Man's worst sin 
is not weakness, but wilfulness. The will is the 
seat both of the soul's authority and its respon- 
sibility. The course of one's life lies in the di- 
rection of his choice. Where there is a will 
there is a way, and where there is a right will 
there is a straight way. The very heart of God 
is hurt when man chooses to turn aside into 
crooked ways. 

The road that leads to enduring life is 
straight, and no one who walks crookedly can 
keep on the highway which is not only straight 
but narrow. He who spends too much time in 
crooked ways and by-roads will not have time 
to cover the space between earth and heaven, 

178 



Crooked Ways 



and even if he could manage to reach the gate 
in time, he can not enter with empty hands. On 
either side of the beaten path to glory there are 
perils of beasts and robbers, and the liability of 
becoming lost in a trackless waste filled with pit- 
falls and delusive snares. 

The quickest and surest way to the goal of 
life is direct. It is a highway; to turn aside is 
to go down hill. He who gets off the track finds 
it hard to get on again, for the slopes are steep. 
Blessed promise ! The Guide will go before, to 
make the way straight! Follow the Guide. 
Keep straight. It takes a single eye, a level 
head, and a true heart to walk straightly. You 
can keep on the straight road if you will. 



179 



THE SIGNS OF AN APOSTLE 

" I seek not yours, but you. . . . And I will most 
gladly spend and be spent for you." — 2 Corinthians xii, 14, i5» 

'* The proud he tamed, the penitent he cheered ; 
Nor to rebuke the rich offender, feared ; 
His preaching much, but more his practice wrought, 
A living sermon of the truth he taught." — Dryden, 

** The minister is to be a real man, a live man, a true 
man, a simple man ; great in his love, in his life, in his work, 
in his simplicity, in his gentleness.*' — John Hall. 

'*Men of God have always from time to time walked 
among men, and made their commission felt in the heart and 
soul of the commonest hearer." — Emerson, 

"For I determined not to know anything among you, 
save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." — / Corinthians ii, 2. 

It was difficult for some of the Corinthians 
to believe that Paul was really an apostle. They 
had such queer ideas of the characteristics which 
they supposed belonged to the man who was sent 
from God. A preacher is a very uncanny crea- 
ture in the eyes of some folks. They keep him 
at a safe distance and associate his life with the 

i8o 



The Signs of An Apostle 



most mysterious unreality. They would agree 
with the gentleman who is reputed to have said, 
'There are three genders in the human race — 
men, women, and preachers." This ridiculous 
conception arises partly from the foolishness and 
ignorance of benighted souls who mistake their 
own superstition for religious faith, and partly 
from the long hair, sable garments, and somber 
countenances of would-be pretenders in the 
preacher-cult. I hereby make my humble con- 
fession that I have seen priestly personages so 
fearfully and wonderfully clad that I would as 
hef have had their friendship as that of Ham- 
let's ghost. If one of these were seen in public 
the world would be justified in running away 
from *'it." But Paul was none of these, and 
his apostolicity was only assailed because the 
contracted littleness of his critics could not com- 
prehend the suggestiveness and blessedness of 
his free, genial, and generous intercourse among 
his fellow-men. God pity the perspective in 
which some men view the cross ! 

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Quality Folks 



It IS a shock to some people to learn that 
ministers do not have Incipient wings. That is 
hard, but in reality it is no worse than for a 
minister to find out that some of the official- 
saints, pew-holders, Sunday-school teachers, and 
church-workers of various sorts need a few fin- 
ishing touches before they are quite ready to be 
translated. The fact is that God made all His 
children out of clay, **and He gave some to 
be apostles, and some prophets, and some 
evangelists, and some teachers, and some pas- 
tors," and we are all in the work of "going 
on to perfection" and of helping others on. The 
fight is both within and without, and many a 
time the minister, as well as the private saint, 
is obliged to arise and restrain himself by force, 
and literally beat his meanness into subjection, 
and by the grace of God to climb out of the pit, 
lest when he has preached to others he him- 
self should be a castaway. 

What, then, are the earmarks of an apostle ? 
Is there any unmistakable sign of dress or mien ? 

182 



The Signs of An Apostle 



Is a man an apostle because he wears a long 
black coat and face? Is it an indication that 
one has received divine orders if he manifest a 
commercial imbecility and an ignorance of the 
business world? Is a fellow with a Bible under 
his arm sure to be sent from God ? Is the form- 
alism of a religious functionary necessarily a 
badge of apostleship? The answer to such 
questions must ever be, '*Maybe yes, and maybe 
no." There are, however, some tests which 
never fail. 

The first sign of an apostle in pulpit or 
pew, and the mark by which he is always known, 
is consecrated manliness. Godliness that makes 
a man unnatural (if we dare think of such a 
thing) can never exert much influence over nat- 
ural men. Nothing is more Christlike than a 
sanely virtuous man. A lot of so-called religion 
is insanity. ''Vir" was the Latin word for man, 
and it is the root of the English 'Virtue." One 
must be manly before he can be saintly. 

No man can claim to be an apostle whose 

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Quality Folks 



record is not backed up, certified, and glorified 
by hard work. The God-sent man has a stu- 
pendous task. Some people think an apostle 
has a snap. Foolish error! The true prophet 
burns out his very life in fiery zeal. Lazy souls 
there are, but the time-server is never heaven- 
sent, whether he be a preacher, a hod-carrier, 
or a seer. The true badge of apostleship is the 
spirit that seeks not to be ministered unto, but 
to minister — that is willing to spend and to be 
spent for others. The true apostle seeks not 
to satisfiy a vaulting ambition, but to serve; his 
business is related to what men are, and not 
what they have. If he stand in the pulpit, 
clothed with divine authority, he must always be 
able to say, ''I seek not yours, but you." 



184 



SELF-MASTERY 

** He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city 
that is broken down and without v/alls." —ProH^erbs xx'v, 28* 

** He who reigns within himseljt and rules his passions, 
desires, and fears, is more than a king,'*—Mtlton* 

**Do you want to know the man against whom you have 
most reason to guard yourself? Your looking-glass will 
give you a very fair likeness of his face." — Wfuitely, 

**If you would learn self-mastery, begin by yielding 
yourself to the One Great Master." — Lobstein. 

**True dignity abides with him alone who, in the silent 
hour of inward thought, can still suspect and still revere him- 
self in lowliness of heart." — Words^worth. 

'*No man is free who can not command himself." — 
Pythagoras* 

**He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and 
he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."— /Vo- 
tferbs x*ut, 32* 

The text is a striking simile. It suggests 
that the man who controls his own powers 
creates his own defense, but that the one who 

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lets the forces of his being run riot has no bul- 
wark for his life. Its picture tells the tale of 
two cities — one, walled, garrisoned, fortified, 
with citadel strong and impregnable. The 
enemy's battering rams only beat themselves 
into splinters in a vain attempt to force a breach ; 
the missiles and javelins, though hurled with 
might, fall short and do not reach the top ; the 
citizens, protected by a strong defense, sit se- 
cure and dwell in peace and safety; the other, 
defenseless, with broken walls, and unprotected 
tower — a prey to plunderers and an invitation 
to hostile hordes. The dwellers lie among the 
ruins or hide in wretched huts, an easy mark for 
flying darts, and, unprotected, they quake with 
fear. 

Man's battle royal is with himself. The 
most dangerous powers which threaten his de- 
struction are not outside, but inside his life. His 
strength Is measured by the power of the feel- 
ings he subdues, and not by the power of 
those which subdue him. It takes more strength 

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Self-Mastery 



to forgive an injury than to pay back its evil 
in double measure. He who loses control of 
his temper is controlled by it, and, therefore, a 
slave. "Keep cool," says Webster; '^anger is 
not argument." It is said that Socrates used 
to check his anger by talking low. The record 
of his dealings with his wife, Xantippe, shows 
him to be a man who had acquired a remark- 
able self-control. It is a great thing to have 
brains, but it is a greater thing to command 
them. 

The command, *'Work out your own sal- 
vation," is only another way of saying, "Mas- 
ter yourself." He who undertakes to conquer 
his own spirit has a long warfare and a hard 
fight. Ask the man who has contended with 
principalities and powers within his heart, who 
has wrestled with the beast of appetite and 
fought with giants of habit, what he knows 
about the battle and how fierce the struggle is. 
Even after the enemy has been brought under 
the yoke the guard must be kept on duty. Ref- 

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Quality Folks 



ormation must be continuous or It will never 
be complete. Seneca says, *We should ask 
ourselves every night: What infirmity have I 
mastered to-day? What temptation resisted? 
What virtue acquired?" 

One is your Master, and you have only mas- 
tered self as His spirit has mastered you. He 
conquers by love. Some one has illustrated the 
truth by the following dialogue: ''I'll master 
it," said the ax, and Its blows fell heavy on 
the iron ; but each blow only made its edge more 
dull, until it ceased to strike. "Leave It to me," 
said the saw, and with Its relentless teeth It 
worked backwards and forwards till they were 
all worn off. ''Ha! Ha!" said the hammer; 
"I '11 show you the way;" but at his first fierce 
stroke his head flew off, and the Iron remained 
as before. "Shall I try?" asked the small, soft 
flame. It curled gently around the Iron and 
embraced it and never left It until It melted 
under the resistless Influence. So love subdues 
a heart. Christ Is love Incarnate. When He 

1 88 



Self-Mastery 



rules, love rules. He is the great Teacher. 
Learn of Him. Xenophon tells how the Per- 
sian princes had for their teachers the four best 
men in the kingdom — the wisest, to teach wis- 
dom; the bravest, to teach courage; the most 
just, to teach morality ; and the most temperate, 
to teach self-control. The Christian finds all 
these in the man Christ Jesus. 

God will not defend the citadel of any man's 
life until the man himself has built up the 
breach in front of his own door. Hast thou 
conquered self ? There is really no other battle 
to be fought. Take the advice of Napoleon to 
his brother Joseph, of Spain, *T have only one 
counsel for you — 'Be master.' " But, Soul, for 
thee, Let that mastery be a mastery over self. 



189 



THE SCHOOL OF EXPERIENCE 

" I have learned by experience." — Genesis xxx, 27. 

** Experience is the Lord's school, and they who are 
taught by Him usually learn by the mistakes they make that 
in themselves they have no wisdom ; and by their slips and 
falls that they have no strength.*' — John Ne^coton. 

** When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few 
years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not 
half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am 
hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me."—' 
John Wesley. 

"Experience keeps a dear school; but fools will learn 
in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true that we may 
give advice, but we can not give conduct." — Benjamin 

Franklin. 

"Experience takes dreadfully high school-wages; but 
he teaches like no other." — Carlyle. 

" I have learned . . . I am instructed." — Paul* 

Every young person passes through a state 
when he sets no value on experience ; when hope 
is a bigger word than history; when he wants no 
advice from his elders, because he thinks he 
needs none. Talk to him about what you Ve 

190 



The School of Experience 



learned by experience, and he will tell you to 
attend to your own affairs. As to the matter 
of what is best for him, he can not be instructed 
— he knows It all. It is well, perhaps, that the 
stripling gets a momentary satisfaction out of 
his imagined wisdom, for he never in all his 
after life feels so wise again. It is possible to 
be in the school of experience and hardly know 
It until the first real test comes. With reference 
to the individual, the first actual achievement in 
knowledge has been made when he can say, ''I 
have learned by experience.'* 

There is a sense in which one ought to for- 
get the things which are behind and reach out 
after things before. Lot's wife was turned into 
a pillar of salt because she even looked back 
toward the smoking city of sin. Jesus once 
said, "He who putteth his hand to the plow 
and looketh backward is not fit for the king- 
dom of God." But, in these instances, the re- 
buke Is for the proneness to cherish and foster 
the mistakes by-gone, and not for the spirit that 

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would seek to profit by them. A very wise man 
Is reputed to have said, ''The prudent man 
foreseeth the evil and hideth himself;" but It Is 
fair to admit that his prudence is more often 
a result of experience than a gift of prophetic 
Insight. Other things being equal, when a 
thoughtful man says, "I have learned," It is 
time to stop and listen. 

When I emphasize the value of experience 
I do not wish to be understood to say that mere 
age will bring discretion. It is a common re- 
mark that an old fool is the worst kind of a fool. 
Young people are sometimes found whose wis- 
dom far excels the wisdom of their elders. The 
business world recognizes the fact that youth 
may be sharp-eyed, level-headed, and judicious. 
What I am trying to say is, that, given any In- 
dividual, bright or dull, with whatsoever powers 
Inherent or acquired, and his wisdom will be 
enlarged, his soundness increased, and his ca- 
pability magnified when he reaches the vantage- 
ground of experience and can say, ''1 have 
learned." 192 



The School of Experience 



The school of experience is the oldest uni- 
versity in the world — it was founded in the 
Garden of Eden. Since the foundation of the 
institution God has been its leading teacher, and 
His instruction is accurate. The value of any 
school depends largely on the capability of its 
faculty. What a handicap to be obliged to un- 
learn what incompetent instructors have taught 
us! On the other hand, the virtue of the very 
best instruction is conditioned on how the stu- 
dent appropriates its worth. 

The school of experience Is the largest col- 
lege in the world, having as many students as 
there are persons in the human race. Its cata- 
logue shows every grade of personality lying 
between the most superstitious savagery and the 
most fastidious refinement. The discipline and 
instruction of such an immense aggregation of 
diverse elements is a stupendous task, and God 
has the right to expect the help of many tutors. 
God's truant laws are strict. Every soul must 



13 193 



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pass through the school, but all do not profit 
alike by its instructions. 

The school of experience is an expensive 
institution, and its curriculum is very hard. It 
costs a lot of money to take the course, and often 
a lot of time. One may or may not know books, 
but before he can get a diploma from this uni- 
versity he must have good sense. The parch- 
ment of the school is a refined heart, and its seal 
bears the image of the Great Teacher. It is im- 
possible to pass through life and not be enrolled 
in the school of experience. The institution will 
do one of two things for you : It will harden 
and embitter, or it will soften and sweeten your 
heart. You yourself determine which. If you 
do not allow God to be your teacher, or if you 
misinterpret His discipline, your experience will 
drag you down : but if you allow Omniscience to 
be your master, and believe that whom the Lord 
loveth He sometimes permits to be chastened, 
you will find yourself enriched, ennobled, re- 
fined, and rendered more worthy of heaven. 

194 



A BLEMISHED OFFERING. 

"But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer; 
for it shall not be acceptable for you.'* — Leviticus xxii, 20* 

'* Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, 

, . . that He might present it unto Himself a glorious 

Church not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but 

that it should be holy and without blemish.*' — Ephesians «P, 

26, 27. 

**0, for a lowly contrite heart, 
Believing, true, and clean, 
Which neither life nor death can part 
From Him that dwells within. 

A heart in every thought renewed, 

And full of love divine; 
Perfect, and right, and pure, and good, 

A copy. Lord, of Thine." — Charles Wesley' 

** Not what we give, but what we share 
For the gift without the giver is bare." 

— ^Vision of Sir Launfa.1 Lowell. 

The original idea of offering was something 
brought near to the altar or to God, and did not 
express so much the neutral idea of a gift as it 
denoted a complimentary present made to se- 

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cure and retain good-will. The fundamental 
idea was to gratify God by giving Him, or 
sharing with Him, a meal. Eating and drink- 
ing together were the ordinary symbols of 
friendship. A bond between man and God was 
supposedly created by this interchange of hos- 
pitality. The idea was to entertain God at a 
feast in which He should receive His portion of 
the food in the fragrant, fire-distilled essence 
which arose in the savor of the burning meat. 
It was thought that the honor thus accorded to 
Him so gratified Him as to render Him well- 
disposed toward the worshipers. 

The origin and development of the idea of 
sacrifice and offering down to the time when the 
worshiper came into possession of the thought 
that ''obedience is better than sacrifice," affords 
a most interesting study and shows how crude 
have been the ideas and superstitions intertwined 
with the beginnings of the religious genius. 
There came a time when the prophets denounced 
sacrifice, according to the prescribed rites, as 

196 



A Blemished Offering 



meaningless, and represented God as declining 
to countenance offerings, sated with them, and 
even loathing them. God's attitude is ex- 
pressed in these words, *^To what purpose is 
the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? I de- 
light not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, 
or of he-goats. Bring no more vain oblations.'' 
The inference is that morality would count far 
more with Him. 

It must be said, however, in justice to the 
ancient Israelites, that, notwithstanding their 
crude ideas of the proper method of approach 
to God, and of the acts which would be a de- 
light to Him, they had reached such a refined 
sense of the fitness of things as to recognize the 
fact that nothing in the way of a gift but the 
very best and soundest was fit to offer to a per- 
fect God. The fact that a law had to be en- 
acted to regulate the matter would seem to in- 
dicate that some one had been picking out the 
blemished animals in his flock to offer In sac- 
rifice. 

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Leaving out of the question the form of the 
offering and the method of giving it, it is true 
now, as ever, that nothing short of the best that 
one can offer will be acceptable to God. Too 
often man is inclined to keep the best and give 
the rest. He will give a stingy portion (and 
let go of It grudgingly) of the money that is 
left after every other interest has been consid- 
ered, to support the enterprises of the Kingdom; 
he will patronize other things with his presence 
in sun, or rain, or frost, or darkness, and squeeze 
out a scanty interest in the services of the House 
of Prayer in the very finest weather; he prays 
when he is sick, when his heart is burdened, and 
when he is sleepy and tired out at the close of 
day. O, brother, this is wrong ! It is an insult 
to God to bring before Him a blemished offer- 
ing, unless a blemished offering is all one has. 

The gift must be sanctified on the altar of 
the life of the giver. The offering is always 
blemished when the offerer is unsound. A blem- 
ished heart can not offer an unblemished sacri- 

198 



A Blemished Offering 



fice. He who would have his offering sound 
and unblemished must get right himself. The 
heart must be both new and clean. There is 
no such thing as patching up matters with hyp- 
ocritical oblations. These are blemished offer- 
ings, and are not acceptable. The principle of 
the blemished offering is wrong, since it fails 
to put first things first. God and the interests 
of His kingdom are first. There must be no 
other gods before Him. To bring to the altar 
a second-class offering is to rob both self and 
God. It would be more honorable to be openly 
a rebellious infidel than to fail to give the best. 
Give Him your best. 



199 



1 



THE PRICE OF A WORTHY WORK 

** Jesus knew that virtue had gone out of Him.*' 

— St. M^rk ^, 30. 

** The force, the mass of character, mind, heart, or soul 
that a man can put into any work, is the most important 
factor in that work." — A. P. Peabody* 

" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might." — Ecctesiasies ix, tO. 

" To color well requires your life. It can not be done 
cheaper." — Ruskin. 

** The good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." 
—St John X, It. 

" Labor — the expenditure of vital effort in some form — is 
the measure, nay, it is the maker of values." — J. G. Holland. 

The Son of man was a busy man. He said 
once, **My Father worketh hitherto, and I 
work." There is no record of any attempt 
on His part to get something for nothing. He 
never tried to get people to follow Him by hold- 

200 



The Price of a Worthy Work 

ing out the inducement of an easy time. He 
spoke of bonds, and stripes, and crosses, and 
persecutions, and imprisonments, and afflictions, 
and virtually said, ''He who is looking for an 
easy road to Glory should not try to follow Me." 
He never said, ''Come unto Me all ye who 
are idle and looking for ease,'' but His call was 
to those "who labor and are heavy laden." He 
did hard things, and said, "Follow Me." He 
was willing to spend His energy to the last ounce 
if by giving His life He could save His fellows. 
He literally poured out His soul as a healing 
lotion upon the bleeding wounds of earth. The 
power that proceeded from Him was the force 
of a heaven-born passion. He knew that to 
save His own life meant a mission unfulfilled. 
He, therefore, gave His life without stint — pas- 
sionately gave it, that men might know the 
value of a truly generous heart. The healing 
virtue of His burning soul streamed forth and 
fell on halt, and lame, and blind, until scores 
of helpless leapt and walked and saw with joy. 

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Multitudes thronged His presence, if only to 
come near enough to touch the hem of the gar- 
ment of a man who was willing to share His life 
with others, and ever since He walked and 
talked and worked with men, myriads have 
taken up the cross, and, following after Him, 
have cried, *'In hoc signo vinces." 

There is no approach to the Elysian fields 
except by the way of the cross. Heaven is not 
reached by an easier way. An ancient Greek, 
thinking to save his bees a laborious flight to 
Hymettus, clipped their wings and gathered 
flowers for them to work upon at home, but 
they made no honey. Worthy work is always 
hard work, and only he who is willing to pay 
the price may enjoy the fruits of honest toil. 
*'0, if I could put a dream like that on can- 
vas!" exclaimed an enthusiastic young artist. 
"Dream on canvas!" growled the old master. 
*'It Is ten thousand touches which you must learn 
to put on canvas which makes your dream." 

It costs something to do a thing right, but 

202 



The Price of a Worthy Work 

he who has any decent regard for his con- 
science dare not do it otherwise. He who likes 
his job takes it to bed with him, walks with It 
In the daytime, puts his heart, hands, brains, and 
life into it, and is bound to succeed; and, more 
than that, he who puts his soul into his work Is 
always satisfied with results. Emerson says that 
the reward of a thing well done is to have 
done it. The heaven that lies at the end of any 
pilgrimage is reached by a path both rough and 
steep. Stupidity sits down on the way, gives up, 
and faints. No one was ever best in any sta- 
tion who did not buy his honor with his blood. 
It is an easy step from doing poor work In 
a half-hearted way to doing wrong. There is 
a satirical poem which represents the devil out 
fishing for men, and adapting his bait to the 
tastes and temperaments of his prey. It shows 
that the lazy idler is the easiest victim, for he 
will swallow even the naked hook. He who 
Is shiftless by choice will soon become nerve- 
less and powerless by necessity. It Is a law of 

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nature that unused faculties become degenerate. 
"It is better to wear out than to rust out." 

No person ever did anything worth while 
who was not conscious of the fact that virtue 
had gone out of him. The heart that truly 
serves is doomed to bleed. The life that heaven 
crowns at last must pay the full measure of de- 
votion to its task. No one who prays, *'Thy 
kingdom come," with an honest heart, dare lay 
down his work till the wounds of the world have 
all been healed. There is the hireling method, 
and there is the good shepherd method. Use 
either, as you choose, but be fully aware of the 
consequences/ It is possible for one simply to 
exist and to consume his powers by rust and 
slow combustion, but he who really lives must 
blaze with a consuming passion and burn up his 
fuel in a furnace flame. The price of redemp- 
tion is always blood, and blood means life. 



204 



MADE OVER 

" And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the 
hand of the potter ; so he made it asain." —J^eremt^h x<viu, 4* 

" Away back in your life God took you and placed you 
upon the wheel, and for these many years has sought to 
make you fair. But there has come a flaw and break, and you 
are a piece of broken pottery. Your life is marred, your ideal 
broken, and all round you lie the littered pieces of the man 
or woman that you might have been. But now what shall 
you do ? God put you in your place for a high purpose, but 
you have missed your mark. God might take another piece 
of clay and make that a vessel, but instead He comes again 
to seek you. The broken pieces of your life, your marred 
and spoiled ideal, may be made over again. The hand of 
God is, so to speak, laying hold upon the broken pieces oi 
your marred and spoiled life, and if you will let Him, He 
will now begin to complete your nature by making it to be 
what He meant it to be years ago when you were cradled at 
the foot of the cross." — F* B* Meyer » 

Jeremiah goes down into the lower city, or 
Into the valley between the upper and the lower 
city, and there his attention is arrested by a 
potter sitting at his work before a wheel. As 

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the prophet watches a vessel is spoiled in the 
making under the craftsman's hand; so the 
process begins afresh and out of the same lump 
of clay another vessel is molded according to 
the potter's fancy. 

Jeremiah was in school, though he didn't 
know it. God had sent him down to the pot- 
tery, where he might learn his lesson. Poor 
Jeremiah! His heart was aching and nearly 
breaking because his attempts to save the people 
from destruction seemed utterly futile. Here, 
in the clay-pit, his attention is called to a potter 
who Is busy fashioning a lump of clay into 
lovely form, when, lo ! just as it was being com- 
pleted. It crumbled to pieces beneath the work- 
man's hand. Some of the fragments fell upon 
the wheel, and some upon the ground. He 
thought that the potter would let them go and 
take another chunk of clay, but Instead, he gath- 
ered up the broken pieces and began to make 
them over. 

The lesson seems to teach the possibility of 

206 



Made Over 



recovery from failure by a second trial, even 
with the same material. The failure on the 
part of the potter was not due to poor work- 
manship, but to poor clay. What is the matter 
that you have not reached your ideal? Has 
God failed? No. What is the matter? Poor 
clay. It will have to be worked over. God 
has to reshape us a good many times before He 
can get anything very comely out of the brittle 
fragments of our lives. He can make use of 
the clay if it is of any account at all. 

The design of the potter is often frustrated 
by a defect in the clay. It may be only after 
repeated attempts with the same material that 
his object is achieved. God's work has always 
been hindered by human flaws. Even a slight 
defect may mar a soul, but here is a parable 
that teaches that it is possible to re-form the 
heart; that the broken pieces of a shattered 
life are worth picking up. Disheartened child, 
take courage! Some of God's best saints had 
to be made over. Jacob, supplanter, wily bar- 

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gainer, conniving plotter, when he is made over 
becomes Israel, prince of God, father of a na- 
tion. Saul of Tarsus, unrelenting persecutor, 
becomes Paul the Apostle, mighty exponent of 
the Christian faith. Peter, trembling coward, 
is converted into the fearless preacher. The 
majority of lives are marred and have to be 
made over. There is still a chance for every 
broken life to be re-shaped. 

The Divine Potter is constantly working 
with human clay, but even He can do nothing 
with material which is not plastic in His hands. 
Man has furnished Him such poor earth that 
the vessel is often broken in His hand, but He 
is patient and will gather up the pieces and try 
again. He does the work so quietly and unos- 
tentatiously that man sometimes feels that he 
has done it himself. It Is said of Herkomer, 
the great artist, that after he had come to name 
and fame in London, that he sent for his father, 
a simple wood-chopper from the Black Forest, 
and desired that he should spend the rest of 

208 



Made Over 



his days with him. The old gentleman was 
fond of molding things out of clay, but as he 
grew older and his form trembled with the palsy 
of weakness, he often went upstairs at night 
disappointed, feeling that his hand was losing 
its cunning. After the father was safe in bed, 
the gifted son would go down and make it over 
into beautiful form, and in the morning the old 
man would look with pleasure upon what he 
thought to be his own work. God often has to 
do that with us. Is your life marred? Give 
God a chance to make it over. 



14 209 



PROJECTED EFFICIENCY. 

**I must work the works of Him that sent Me." — Sim 
yohn ix, 4, 

'*I have never heated anything about the resolutions of 
the apostles, but a great deal about their acts." — Horace Ma.nn* 

" I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth 
me . ' * — Phttippians h>, 13, 

**Life was not given for indolent contemplation and 
study of self, nor for brooding over emotions of piety; actions 
and actions only determine the worth." — Fichie* 

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might." — Ecdesiastes ix, tO* 

**Be great in act as you have been in thought* Suit 
the action to the word and the word to the action." — Shake' 
speare* 

In any sense in which the terms may be used, 
there is a vast difference between efficiency and 
projected efficiency. Efficiency is the state of 
possessing adequate knowledge or ability for the 
performance of a duty or function. Projected 

2IO 



Projected EfRciency 



efficiency is knowledge or ability acting in ac- 
cordance with a plan previously sketched out and 
forecasted. The former is subjective, the latter 
IS objective; the one is passive and may use its 
ability only to hold the fort, the other is active 
and shows a determination both to hold its own 
and to storm and take another fort. An auto- 
mobile stands at the curb quivering with 
energy and with every fiber of its mechanism 
trembling with power — that is efficiency. A man 
steps into the car, pulls a lever, applies the force, 
turns the guide-wheel, and the huge machine 
whirls swiftly down the avenue— that is pro- 
jected efficiency. 

We are proceeding on the assumption that 
the fact of existence implies its necessity; that 
to be alive and to have the right use of one's 
faculties is to possess somewhat of talent, and 
that to possess any talent is to be under the ob- 
ligation of using it. Truly enough, the exist- 
ence of some men is of greater importance to 
the world than that of others; but to be an in- 

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dividual is to be God-sent, and that is to have 
a mission. There is something each one is able 
to do, and, in consequence of this ability, some- 
thing that both God and fellow-man have a 
right to expect him to do. Some minimizer of 
private soul-worth has said, **If you wish an 
illustration of your importance in the world, 
stick your finger in the ocean, and, having with- 
drawn it, look for the hole." But, notwith- 
standing the seeming truth of the statement, 
each person has his place to fill, and if fie do 
not fill it he creates an eternal void. It would 
be a fearful thing to die and leave one^s errand 
unfulfilled. 

Each soul has a certain kind of efficiency. 
He has a vital relationship to his own group. 
He is able to do a particular thing, and his 
talent Is wrapped In a napkin and hidden in 
the earth until he has projected his value in 
some kind of a positive deed. There are too 
many people in the world who are the mere pas- 
sive recipients of impressions which, In reality, 

212 



Projected Efficiency 



take no firm hold upon them. They are like 
weather vanes, v/hich turn to suit the direction 
of the wind. They cherish no truth strongly; 
there is no passion in their life. 

Goodness in its last analysis is greatness, 
but goodness in action is the greatest goodness. 
It Is not enough simply to be good — one must 
be good for something. The man of real value 
to the world has a program. He is justly con- 
scious of the possession of power and his life 
IS filled with a commanding purpose. He is 
no figure-head; he is a man in fact. He pos- 
sesses opinions and a will ; he has convictions, the 
holding of which is dearer to him than life. 

The irresolute person thinks, and moralizes, 
and dreams, and does nothing. The life that 
reaches the full measure of its possibility must 
be under the mastery of a regnant, righteous 
will. The will is the executive of the con- 
science, and the conscience whose dictates are 
not enforced is worthless. It is related that the 
first Lord Shaftesbury, in a conversation with 

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Locke, said that wisdom lay in the heart, not 
the head, and that it was not want of knowledge, 
but perverseness of will that filled men's actions 
with folly and their lives with disorder. Even 
good will is not enough — one must act in ac- 
cordance with good will. 

The difference between efficiency and pro- 
jected efficiency is in reality the difference be- 
tween weakness and strength. When Luther 
said to Erasmus, 'Tou wish to walk on eggs 
without crushing them, and on glasses without 
breaking them," the timorous, hesitating Eras- 
mus replied, **I will not be unfaithful to the 
cause of Christ, at least, so far as the age will 
permit J^ Luther was of a different type. He 
said in substance: "It is my duty to go to the 
Diet with this matter, and I will go if I en- 
counter devils as numerous as the tiles on the 
housetops, and though I should have to go 
through flames that reach from Worms to Wit- 
tenberg and flash up to heaven, and though it 
rain Duke Georges for nine days together.'* 

214 



Projected Efficiency 



The first question after a right course of action 
has presented itself, is not, **What will the 
people say?" but, "Is it my duty?" Some men 
of willingness and ability fail through lack of 
courage. There are a lot of people in the 
world who are sweet-spirited and passively 
good, but there is a sin-cursed world to be saved, 
and It will never be redeemed by retiring right- 
eousness. God wants some spirit-filled fighters 
who can strike terrific blows and make deep 
gashes and smite to the death. Sin can not be 
conquered in a mild way. The world can not 
be saved by philosophers who quibble and dis- 
cuss, but by decisive men who act. 



215 



THE DIET OF THE SOUL 

'* Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not 
bread ? and your labor for that which satisfieth not ? hearken 
diligently to Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your 
soul delight itself in fatness.'* — Isaisih Iv, 2, 

" A fig for your bill-of-f are ; show me your bill of com- 
pany." — S^ifL 

"Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that 
which endufeth ... I am the living bread that comes 
down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live 
iorevQT.''~St John ^i, 27, 51. 

" If thou wouldst preserve a strong body, use fasting and 
walking; if a healthful soul, fasting and praying. Walking 
exercises the body; praying the soul; fasting cleanses 

What to eat Is a matter of serious con- 
sideration, especially for those who are weak 
or ill. Nourishment has a direct relation to 
health and happiness. One may be rendered 
unfit for service either by starvation or luxury. 
The one lowers his vitality and opens the way 
for disease; the other poisons his system and 

2l6 



The Diet of the Soul 



loads him with weakness, excesses, and abuse. 
Life depends upon what it assimilates, and is 
best sustained by a wholesome diet. It is bet- 
ter to enrich its powers by nourishment than 
to quicken its activity by stimulant. The food 
one eats becomes literally his blood, his flesh, 
his life. He gets its strength not by talking 
about it, looking at it, nor by admiring its nutri- 
tive properties ; but by feeding upon it. There 
IS the closest possible relation between the body 
and the things upon which it lives. It is, there- 
fore, of the utmost importance that the dietary 
be simple and good. It must be neither scanty 
nor sumptuous, but plain, generous, and sub- 
stantial. It is of relatively greater importance 
that one should have a care about the diet of 
his soul. 

Spiritual health is vitally related to the food 
upon which the soul subsists. One may starve his 
heart or nourish it according as he allows it to 
feed on the husks of sin or the finest wheat of 
God's good harvest. Starved souls are not in 

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need so much of medicine as of wholesome food. 
The Gospel must not be minimized as a remedy 
for sin, but it ought to be magnified as a means 
of nourishing spiritual soundness. It becomes 
such a means not when we read about Christ, 
or talk about Him, but only when we feed upon 
His life and assimilate all that was in it of in- 
spiration and power. 

When the prophet said, '*Eat ye that which 
Is good," he was speaking to the Hebrew 
captives in Babylon on the eve of their return 
to Jerusalem. Babylon was the center of the 
world's trade. It was during their exile here 
that the Jews formed their mercantile habits, 
which, next to their religion or in place of It, 
have become the genius of their national char- 
acter. Their toil had borne fruit. They had 
gathered property and were settled in outward 
comfort. But, however prosperous, they were 
unable to satisfy their highest cravings on the 
things which money could buy in a strange 
country. Home, to Israel, meant Jerusalem, 

218 



The Diet of the Soul 



duty, righteousness, God. Their real hunger 
and thirst were for Jehovah, and in Him alone 
could they find the delightsome fatness of their 
soul. It is ever so. Commercial prosperity and 
material success have no power to purchase sat- 
isfaction for the heart that is not rich toward 
God. The luxuries of wealth only taunt the 
hunger of the soul that does not feed on that 
which is good. Riches is a mockery when the 
heart has no treasure in heaven. It is a crime 
to feed the body and starve the soul, but is still 
worse to compel the soul to feed upon the things 
which will destroy it. 

Christ, using human conditions and attempt- 
ing to signify His relation to His followers, in 
metaphor, said, *'I am the Door," or, **I am 
the Vine," or, "I am the Light," or, "I am the 
Way," or, '*I am the Good Shepherd," and then, 
in recognition of heart-hunger and in full knowl- 
edge of what would satisfy it, declared that He 
was the Bread of Life, and that any soul that 
would feed on Him should live. 

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The diet of the soul determines its quality. 
One^s very nature is changed into the similitude 
of the things on which he feeds. Beasts are 
rendered ferocious by feeding them on un- 
cooked meat. The food one eats even leaves its 
impress on his countenance. The contrast be- 
tween Daniel's fair face and the countenances 
of his dissipated attendants is explained by the 
difference between plain food and the sumptuous 
gluttony of the king's court. The student's face 
is radiant with intelligence, and one's religious 
tone may be detected in his visage. It is not 
necessary to be in the presence of a person long 
to be able to determine at what table he sat- 
isfies his hunger. 

There is a deeper hunger than the unholy 
cravings of the life of sin. The diet of the 
soul should satisfy the deepest cravings of the 
heart. The sot, reeking with a life of debauch 
when he enters the mission and breaks down 
and sobs and repents, gives expression to a hun- 
ger different from the sensual cravings of a life 

220 



The Diet of the Soul 



of sin. The Bread of Life will satisfy that 
longing. Truth must be embodied in living 
form before man can live upon it. Physical 
life can only be sustained by that which has 
been alive. Truth in the abstract is hard to 
assimilate, but when the Word becomes flesh, 
we can feed upon it. The Bread of Life is 
not a luxury; it is a necessity. Feed on it by 
faith. 



221 



THE MEDICINES OF THE SOUL 

** I went unto the angel and said unto him, Give me 
the little book. And he said unto me, Take it and eat it 
up." — Re*velation x, 9. 

"The books we read should be chosen with great care, 
that they may be as an Egyptian king wrote over his library, 
*The Medicines of the Soul.'" 

**Did ye never read in the Scriptures ?'' — St* MattheTD 
xxi, 42. 

"Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and 
some few to be chewed and digested." — Bacon, 

** Understandest what thou readest ?" — The Acts "viiif 30. 

"The book to read is not the one that thinks for you, 
but the one which makes you think. No book in the world 
equals the Bible for that." — McCosh. 

There is a certain similarity between a drug- 
store and a library. The one contains vials 
filled with lotions, irritants, stimulants, nar- 
cotics, balms, and poisons, capable of producing 
specific effects upon man's physical nature; the 
other contains volumes filled with substances 

222 



The Medicines of the Soul 

capable of producing analogous effects upon the 
mind. It would be exceedingly unwise for any 
one unskilled in the properties and effects of 
drugs to fill prescriptions and administer doses; 
his ignorance might bring destruction and death 
upon himself and others. It may be equally 
fatal, though the results are not so quickly ap- 
parent, to the soul of man if he deals thus in- 
discriminately with books. 

Never has the statement of the wise man, 
*'Of making many books there is no end," been 
more true than now. America, England, and 
France together publish more than twenty-five 
thousand volumes annually. Only a small per- 
centage at best of this enormous output can ever 
exert any potent influence on life or thought. 
The danger lies in the fact that so many people 
have not the power to discriminate between the 
valueless and low-grade fiction, and that whole- 
some literature that is a tonic to mind and heart 
alike. Some of the poorest trash is often bound 
in most attractive style. When Carlyle said, 

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"The true university is a collection of books/' 
he had in mind only books worth reading. If 
he were here to-day he would say, ''Choose your 
books and read a few good ones rather than 
many poor ones." We are sometimes ashamed 
to admit that we are not acquainted with some 
new and much-discussed novel, when the truth 
of the matter is that it might be a waste of 
time and energy even to read it. It is always 
safe, when a new book comes out, to read an 
old one that has stood the test of time. The 
books that really furnish food for life will live 
beyond a year. Good books, like good hearts, 
improve with age. The trashy pabulum of sen- 
sational literature is liable to produce mental 
indigestion. Read the best first, whether old or 
new; if you have time, read the rest, is safe 
advice. 

If books are "The Medicines of the Soul," 
one should choose his author with the same care 
as he would select his physician. We do not 
want a doctor to prescribe for our bodily ail- 

224 



The Medicines of the Soul 

ments, or even to hand us an advertisement of 
his concoctions, If he do not know poison from 
soothing syrup. Why should we permit any 
man to hand us or sell us an advertisement of 
his mind if he know no distinction between 
moral cleanliness and immoral filth? In the 
realm of written thought the world is full of 
good things and cheap, but the wise man will 
select. 

We take medicine to assist nature in making 
our bodies sound ; we should read such books as 
help our minds to grow both strong and well. 
Medicine is doing most for the body when it 
is enriching the blood, building up the consti- 
tution and strengthening its functional activity. 
Books with truly medicinal properties enrich the 
soul-life and contribute to its largest and com- 
pletest development. The books that really 
nourish us are those which bring us self-revela- 
tion. The physician who can properly diag- 
nose a case can find the seat of the trouble; 
it is easy then to prescribe a cure if any remedy 
15 225 



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is known. If you would have your moral ill 
revealed, read the Bible. You may find the 
cure there, too. There is but one book; there 
is but one physician; there is but one remedy. 
There are many good books, but all the good 
of all the books is found in God's good Book. 
Wherever you find good you find God, and 
whenever you feed your soul on good you con- 
tribute to its welfare. 



226 



A LARGE PLACE 

" He brought me forth into a large place." 

— The Psatms x<oiiu t9, 

** There are two freedoms; the false, where man is free 
to do what he likes ; the true, where man is free to do what 
he ought." — Kingsley* 

'* To an honest mind the best prerequisites of a place 
are the advantages it gives a man of doing good." — Addison* 

** Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every 
man has many ; not on your past misfortunes, of which all 
men have some." — Dickens. 

** It is not the place that maketh the person, but the 
person that maketh the place honorable." — Cicero* 

The eighteenth Psalm is justly considered 
one of the most magnificent odes that David 
ever wrote. It is a song of deliverance. He 
sang it in the last years of his prosperity, when 
all the surrounding nations were bowing In hom- 
age and presenting to him their tribute. The 
title of the poem states that the words were 

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spoken by David in the day that the Lord de- 
livered him from the hand of all his enemies, 
and from the hand of Saul. It is an outburst 
of thanksgiving from the heart for God's mani- 
fold and marvelous blessings, and has its his- 
torical setting in the relationship of the author 
with the jealous king. 

He has been persecuted sorely, compelled 
to live in forest and cave like a hunted fox, and 
now that he feels that he has been delivered from 
Saul and all the rest of his enemies, it Is little 
wonder that he feels that he has come out into 
a large place. 

We are inclined to belittle our spheres of 
usefulness and to feel that our place in the 
world is small and obscure and that our in- 
fluence is narrow and circumscribed. Our fields 
are really larger than we think, even though 
at times they seem to be contracted by bondage 
and oppression. At all events, the delights of 
freedom are accentuated by the knowledge of 
the servitude from which we have been de- 

228 



A Large Place 



livered, and he who has been forced Into a small 
place enjoys the expanse of a large one. The 
freed slave has a right to sing of liberty and 
to exult in the praise of his deliverer. There 
is a large place for every soul. Only the one 
who trusts in God can expect Almighty deliv- 
erance. When the Romans under Marcus 
Aurelius, in an expedition against the Gauls, 
found themselves hungry and tormented with 
thirst and facing inevitable defeat because they 
were surrounded by precipitous mountains oc- 
cupied by their barbarian foe, the commander 
of the Praetorian guards Informed the emperor 
that the Mllltlne legions were Christians and 
believed in the elSScacy of prayer. Aurelius 
thereupon commanded them to conjure their 
God. Hardly had they arisen from their knees 
when, according to the pagan historian, a ter- 
rific storm of hail and lightning, as if It were fire 
and water from the clouds, frightened and drove 
the Quadi from their intrenchments to seek re- 
lief among the Romans, where only a gentle and 

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refreshing rain was falling. Call it coincidence 
or what you will, there are many facts in his- 
tory, ancient and modern, which seem to justify 
the belief that the soul that trusts In God can 
command the Infinite resources of Almightlness. 

One of the evident and admirable traits 
of the author of this poem is that he remembers 
his deliverance from the deep waters. Man is 
so prone to forget the benefits of God. The 
English proverb puts It, *'The river past and 
God forgotten," while the Italian form sounds 
sadder still, *'The trial passed, the saint 
mocked." Man's memory seems to fade In 
proportion as the distance between himself and 
the past experience increases. Mandrabulus, 
the Samian, under the auspices and direction 
of Juno, discovered a gold mine. In his in- 
stant gratitude he vowed to her a golden ram, 
which he presently exchanged In Intention to a 
silver one, and again this for a very small brass 
one, and this for nothing at all. 

A man's religion is his life, and can not be 

230 



A Large Place 



disassociated from his thought and work. His 
daily deeds are the measure of what he has a 
right to expect from God. God deals with 
men as men deal with one another. David had 
a right to regard his deliverance as a reward 
of his righteous dealings with Saul. We get 
back our mete as we measure. We have a right 
to expect forgiveness only as we forgive. Pope 
feels this when he prays : 

"Teach me to feel another's woe; 
To hide the fault I see ; 
The mercy I to other's show, 
That mercy show to me.*' 

When God frees a man from the enemies 
of his soul, He enlarges his possibilities. The 
new man in Christ Jesus Is a man of larger use- 
fulness. But there is a very real sense In which 
one must work out his own salvation. The only 
large place a man will ever fill will be the one 
that he has made for himself. It is a mercy 
to man that he Is asked to make his own pro- 
motion. If it were not so, he might experience 

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the ridiculous situation of being a little man in 
a big place — a terrible calamity. Right is 
stronger than might, and "Truth crushed to 
earth will rise again," and when it does It will 
be in a larger place. No one can be at his best 
when driven by the enemy of his soul into the 
barren fastnesses of life, where he must skulk 
and hide in caves and darkness, afraid to sally 
forth. But with God's deliverance there comes 
freedom — the freedom of a larger place. 



232 



A DIVIDED HEART. 

"Their heart is divided/' — Hoses, x, 2* 

"Either take Christ into your lives, or cast Him out of 
your lips. Either be what thou seemest, or else be what thou 
art."— i>yer* 

"In religion, not to do as thou sayest is to unsay thy re- 
ligion in thy deeds and to undo thyself by doing.'* — Vanning* 

"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate 
the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one 
and despise the other." — St* Mstthe^w ^vii, 24» 

"There is no class of men so difficult to be managed in 
a state as those whose intentions are honest but whose con- 
sciences are bewitched." — Napoleon* 

HosEA got his conception of the conse- 
quences of a divided heart in one of the saddest 
experiences that can fall to the lot of human 
life. In a day of unspeakable sorrow he awoke 
to the fact that his home was wrecked; that 
the wife of his youth, the companion of his 
heart's love, the mother of his boy, had proven 

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false to her marriage vows. Immeasurable 
abyss of grief ! What anguish of soul when he 
was forced to name the second-born "Unpitied/' 
and the third, "Not Mine!" O, heart-rending 
pathos — a child made orphan by a mother's sin ! 
Hosea looked about him and saw that his 
experience was not unique; that other homes 
were broken by divided hearts. In this wreck- 
age and debris of sin he caught a vision of the 
apostate child of God. In the hurt of his own 
heart, in his longing for the return of his prod- 
igal wife, he came to an appreciation of the 
wounded patience of an outraged God whose 
children had broken their covenant and wronged 
His love. He shows that his wife had sinned 
through ignorance, and in the vain belief that 
her corn and wine and oil and increased gold 
and silver were gifts of paramours. She did 
not know that it was he, her true love, who had 
given her bread and water and wool and flax. 
In his personal experience, the prophet has 
come upon the Lord's view-point when he de- 

234 



A Divided Heart 



clares, "My people are destroyed through lack 
of knowledge." God is grieved because Israel 
has forsaken His love. They are falling from 
bad to worse, and their trouble is subjective — 
"Their heart is divided." 

It is impossible to build a home on divided 
sentiments; it is equally impossible for a heart 
to be at peace and have a divided aim. Unity 
is absolutely necessary to strength. A divided 
heart is a weak heart — it will break itself and 
others. It is both unstable and unhappy. The 
right way is the way of the true heart ; it is not 
always easy, but when one keeps in it he feels 
satisfied. It is impossible for one with even a 
spark of conscience to do wrong and feel right. 
The strong heart is devoted to a single Lord. 

The majority of people who acknowledge 
no definite relationship to the Kingdom of God 
are not atheists nor infidels, but simply persons 
without settled convictions. So many persons 
are unwilling to take a stand on a principle of 
known right because of fear, love of pleasure 

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or gain, or for the sake of policy. These are 
not men — they are only so many figures for 
sale on the open market ! At the mercy of the 
trade-winds of public opinion and with no fixed 
course, they point at irregular intervals at every 
star in the social universe; with no courage to 
decide, they halt between two opinions until 
the best part of life is frittered away. Most 
people know better than they do. The weak- 
ness of the Church has ever been that so many 
of its members have a theory of religion for 
Sunday and another for working hours; one 
code of ethics for the sanctuary and another 
for the board of trade. It is absolutely outside 
the range of possibility to be part in one king- 
dom and part in another. God will either rule 
the heart or vacate. 

A house built on divided interests can not 
stand, and a soul can not serve both God and 
mammon. Stability of character can only rest 
on a fixed center of right. A righteous man is 
not charged with some sort of ethereal lumi- 

Z2>^ 



A Divided Heart 



nosity that makes his face glow with a ghostly 
sheen; he is simply a man of unflinching integ- 
rity and uncompromising honor, with a single 
aim, based on a sane conception of right, and a 
stanch purpose unalterably fixed and constant 
as Polaris. This high-grade life can not be ob- 
tained without much prayer and effort. I call 
you to the undivided service of a true and honest 
heart. To love the Lord with all one's soul 
and mind and might is the surest road to ulti- 
mate and abundant success In life. A true 
Christian is only a man at his best. 



237 



THE MAN OF GOD 

"That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly 
furnished. "--2 Timothy Hi, 17. 

**Let each man think himself an act of God; his mind 
a thought, his life a breath of God." — Ba,iley. 

**The older I grow — and now I stand on the brink of 
eternity — the more comes back to me that sentence in the 
Catechism, which I learned when a child, and the fuller and 
deeper its meaning becomes, * What is the chief end of man? 
To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.' *' — Carlyle* 

*' God divided man into men, that they might help each 
other.'* — Seneca.. 

"They that deny a God, destroy man's nobility, for man 
is akin to the beasts by his body, and if he is not akin to God 
by his spirit he is an ignoble creature." — Bacon. 

**Two men please God — who serves Him with all his 
heart because he knows Him; who seeks Him with all his 
heart because he knows Him not." — Panin. 

The expression, **Man of God,'' is usually 
construed in a general way and applied to man- 
kind of either sex. For the sake of directing 
special attention to the masculine division of the 

238 



The Man of God 



human race, permit me to use it in the literal 
sense and to raise the question of the relation 
of a man to the Kingdom of God. 

The average congregation in the modern 
Church has a greater percentage of ladies than 
gentlemen. Who can produce the reason? It 
has not always been so. The first persons at- 
tracted by the teachings of Jesus were men. The 
great champions of the faith all through the 
ages have, for the most part, been men. There 
must be some reason for the fact that men ap- 
parently are less interested in the Church and 
the outward forms of religion than formerly. 
Has Christianity lost its virile strength, or have 
men so lapsed into a condition of stupid leth- 
argy that their hearts no longer respond to the 
call of Truth? It is sometimes charged that 
the presentation of the Gospel is weak and ef- 
feminate : but such accusations are usually made 
by those who seldom or never go to Church. 
It is more likely to be true that whenever men 
do not delight in the services of the sanctuary 

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it Is because they have lost their taste for spirit- 
ual things. It is not fair to judge a man's virtue 
by his religiousness; there is a vast difference 
between that and religion ; but it is just to assume 
that he who has any hunger for righteousness 
will embrace every opportunity to feed upon 
the things which satisfy it. The Temple stands 
for God's visible presence in the world, and 
myriads of souls have found meat In Its min- 
istrations. He who has no relish for the House 
of Prayer must have a depraved appetite. 

Who, then, is the man of God? Is he a 
preacher? Yes, a preacher ought to be a man 
of God. But, is he necessarily a person who 
devotes his whole time to things openly and 
formally religious? No! In the very most 
real sense, any virtuous business man is a man 
of God. Each man who has a sense of the 
dignity of life realizes that he Is here on busi- 
ness for his King. He has no business that Is 
not God's business, and if he be dishonorable 
by the measurement of a hair's breadth, he Is 

240 



The Man of God 



untrue to the divine stamp of manhood. He 
who IS unswervingly conscientious, undeviat- 
ingly consistent, and constantly reliable is a 
man of God. 

If a man be not God's man, whose man is 
he? No sane man is irresponsible. Every man 
of sound mind is working in the interest of 
somewhat and ought to be conscious of the 
great privilege, as well as the great responsi- 
bility, of possessing power to control the issues 
of his life. Man is so constituted that he feels 
the sense of being possessed — he is fully aware 
that he serves the master whom he obeys. The 
question is, therefore, pertinent: If a man be 
not a man of God, what kind of a man is he? 

The man of God is simply the highest type 
of thoroughly furnished manhood — a person 
who uses all his powers and abuses none. He 
realizes his stewardship and gives an accurate 
account of himself. He tries to live at the top 
of his condition, physically, mentally, morally. 
He is religious because he knows that one can 
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not disregard his relation to God and ever be 
complete. He finds his heart going out after 
something beyond and above himself. He finds 
the object that satisfies his cravings and is nat- 
urally worshipful. He acknowledges the image 
in which he has been created and seeks to bring 
no dishonor upon his heritage. He fears God 
and loves Him because he believes that life is 
no farce, religion no fable, and that godliness 
is profitable in this world and the next. A man 
is a poor man who is not a man of God. 



242 



WORK AND WORSHIP 

" Thou Shalt <worship the Lord thy God, and Him only 
Shalt thou serve*" — St* Luke vv, 8* 

" Not alone to know, but to act according to thy knowl- 
edge, is thy destination, proclaims the voice of thy inmost 
soul. Not for indolent contemplation and study of thyself, 
nor for brooding over emotions of piety — no, for action was 
existence given thee ; thy actions and thy actions alone 
determine thy worth." — Ftchte* 

** Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? , , , He 
that <wa,tketh uprightly and <worketh righteousness." — Psatm 
X'v, t, 2. 

** We should worship as though the Deity were present. 
If my mind is not engaged in my worship, it is as though I 
worshiped not." — Confucius* 

** Faith, if it hath not works is dead." — St* James ii, 17 • 

Carlyle once said, **What greater calamity 
can fall upon a nation than the loss of wor- 
ship?" He also said, "The latest gospel in the 
world IS, Know thy work and do it." Work 
and worship go hand in hand. Spirituality de- 
pends as much upon work as work upon spirit- 

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uality. To disregard worship is to be an in- 
grate ; to fail to do one's work is to thwart the 
plans of God. Failing to understand the inter- 
relation of these terms, men go to one of two 
extremes — they separate themselves from the 
world of work to live a life of prayer ; or, they 
rely upon their deeds alone to make good their 
lack of faith. The world has been slow to 
learn that one's deeds can not be divorced from 
his devotions. Though worship is a condition 
of man's soul, an instinct of his life, It took him 
a long time to grasp the thought, ''God is a 
spirit, and they that worship Him must worship 
Him in spirit and in truth;" and seemingly, he 
only partially appreciates yet the fact that his 
life interprets his prayers. 

In his primitive state man worshiped, but 
he had to have something visible on which to 
fasten his eyes. He found this object in nature 
— as the sun, a river, a mountain, a lake — or he 
constructed an image with his own hands out of 
wood, or metal, or stone. As he grew In wis- 

244 



Work and Worship 



dom and capacity of understanding he began to 
look within, and, by a divinely appointed in- 
trospection, saw the true altar, the true sanc- 
tuary, the true center of acceptable worship. It 
was only after his piety began to feed itself on 
the almightiness of God that he came to per- 
ceive that '*God is a spirit." Ancient Judaism 
kept up a magnificent tragedy of symbolism, but 
modern Christianity must represent an infinitely 
more magnificent tragedy of reality. When the 
heart is right, conduct will be right, and worship 
becomes the adoring reverence of the human 
spirit for the divine, seeking outward expres- 
sion. God cares not for priestly pomp — He 
wants personal purity. 

He asks no taper lights on high, surrounding 
The priestly altar and the saintly grave; 

No dolorous chant nor organ music sounding, 
Nor incense clouding up the twihght nave. 

For he whom Jesus loved has truly spoken: 
The hoHer worship which He deigns to bless 

Restores the lost, and binds the spirit-broken, 
And feeds the widow and the fatherless/' 

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Work IS the generic term for any continuous 
application of energy toward an end. Worship 
IS the feeling or the act of religious homage to- 
ward deity. Worship expresses an attitude, 
work an activity ; worship adores, work achieves ; 
worship prays, work performs ; worship is exal- 
tation, work is exertion; worship does homage 
to deity, work does honor to duty. While work 
and worship seem so opposite in certain char- 
acteristics, they are at the same time so insep- 
arably united as almost to be identical. True 
worship can never be an externality nor a thing 
apart from the tasks of life ; it is not the reading 
of rites nor the mumbling of masses — it is the 
overflow of a spirit-filled life; it is the aroma 
of good works. He who works rightly wor- 
ships rightly. 

No man can worship who does not work. 
He who thinks that he can come to the sanctu- 
ary on Sunday and in a few spasms of prayer 
straighten out a week of crooked work, is de- 
ceived. God looks upon work well done as the 

246 



Work and Worship 



best homage of a true heart. Prayers that do 
not harmonize with practice have no wings; 
they simply flutter and fall; they are dead, 
worthless things. Worship that pleases God is 
a spontaneity; it bubbles up out of life's daily 
task; it can not be forced; it can not be put on; 
it must spring from the depths. Study a man's 
life if you want to know the value of his prayers. 
The quality of his worship is determined by 
the standard of his work. There can be no 
symphony of worship without symmetry of 
work. Life must be a song of work and wor- 
ship. 



247 



REMEMBERING ONE'S FAULTS 

** I do remember my faults this day." — Genesis xli, 9» 

** The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none." 
— Cartyle* 

** Ten thousand of the greatest faults in our neighbors 
are of less consequence to us than one of the smallest in our- 
selves." — Whatet^* 

" Cleanse thou me from hidden faults." — Psalm xix, 12, 

** No one sees the wallet on his own back, though every 
one carries two packs ; one before, stuffed with the faults of 
his neighbors; the other behind, filled with his own. — OlA 
Prcyverh* 

" In their mouth was found no guile ; for they are with- 
out fault before the throne of God." — Re'vetation xi<v, 5, 

** We should correct our own faults by seeing how un- 
comely they appear in others." — Beaumont* 

A FAULT Is defined as a slight offense ; a neg- 
lect of duty or propriety, resulting from inat- 
tention or lack of prudence rather than from de- 

248 



Remembering One's Faults 



sign to injure or offend; whatever Impairs ex- 
cellence ; a blemish ; a defect. 

A thing may be approximately perfect and 
still have faults. Faults represent the differ- 
ence between the work of an amateur and that 
of a master. They are the defects which a 
critic's eye would notice. They may be due to 
inability or inexperience ; to carelessness or crud- 
ity. The difference between work fairly well 
done and work done as well as it can be, may 
not seem great: but it is the difference between 
the faulty and the faultless; the difference be- 
twten the product of Michael Angelo and that 
of the ordinary sculptor ; between the handiwork 
of Raphael and that of the painter of common 
note ; between the designs of Von Rile and those 
of the average architect of splendid halls. The 
significance of this difference is in the question 
of how much the defect damages and of how 
much more a faultless thing is worth. One 
man takes a certain number of paints, canvas of 
a certain shape and size, brushes of a certain 

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variety, and paints a picture which he sells for 
twenty-five dollars ; another man takes the same 
kind of paints, the same shape and size of canvas, 
and the very same brushes, and paints a picture 
which he sells for twenty-five thousand dollars 
— the difference between these sums is the price 
of a fault so small that the untrained eye could 
scarcely see it at all. The difference between 
the faulty and the faultless is a matter of no 
little Importance. 

With reference to character, persons unwill- 
ing to admit that they have sinned are very 
ready to acknowledge that they have faults. It 
IS quite common to look upon a fault as some- 
thing less than a sin. In fact, there are those 
who seem to be rather proud of their eccentrici- 
ties and idiosyncrasies, as If they were note- 
worthy marks of private personality. Faults 
of the heart can not, however, be dismissed with 
no concern. In calling to mind the things which 
subtract from perfection, discount our influence 
and our life, which blemish our characters, and 

250 



Remembering One's Faults 

which impair the completeness of our work, we 
must consider by how much the value of our 
being is lessened by our faults and how defective 
our lives may be, and still be regarded by an 
all-wise and impartial Judge as sufficiently meri- 
torious to be entitled to the reward of the right- 
eous. In other words, how much less than per- 
fect can we be and still be received, in the end, 
as if we were perfect? 

One's faults are the weak places at which 
his character is liable to break. A heart like 
a chain is really no stronger than its weakest 
point. Defects always discount; a blemished 
beast or a damaged thing will not bring full 
price. The flaw may be insignificant, but it is 
always noted and a price is set upon it. A soul 
may be sound In ninety-nine items in a hundred, 
and yet the one may work the destruction of 
the many. The virtue of a life that is truly 
honest at the core may run out through the leak 
of a very small defect. Good men often pay 
dreadful penalties for a single break in honor. 

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It is a good thing for one to examine him- 
self and to test his heart for flaws, weak places, 
and defects. It is easy to see the faults of 
others, but not so easy to see our own, because 
we will not try. There are parts of our lives, 
past and present, which we do not like to think 
about, but from which we may learn useful les- 
sons. A mere incident or conjunction of circum- 
stances may bring them to our mind. There is 
no value in remembering our faults if we only 
look at our actions to try to make them seem as 
white as possible; we must be severe with our- 
selves if our investigation amount to anything 
worth while. 

When one remembers his faults he realizes 
how hard it is for God to establish His king- 
dom in the face of such obstacles. The question 
of faults is a serious one, for the heart must 
be without them, excepting the infirmities which 
it can not control, before it Is fit for heaven. 
We pray, *Thy kingdom come," and our faults 
belie our prayers. Man must attempt to rectify 

252 



Remembering One's Faults 

his own faults before he can command the help 
of God. Listen! Your so-called shortcomings 
are not trivialities. Minus completeness means 
weighed and found wanting. It is no slight 
thing to bring a blemished victim to the altar. 
Help me, Lord, to clear myself of hidden 
faults ! 



253 



IMMORTALITY. 

** If a man die shall he live again ? '* — ^ob xh)» i4. 

**I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, 
and that its activity will continue through eternity. It is like 
the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set in night, but it has 
in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere." — Goethe. 

"Not all the subtilities of metaphysics can make me 
doubt a moment of the immortality of the soul, and of a bene- 
ficient providence. I feel it, I believe it, I hope it, and I will 
defend it to my last breath." — Rousseau, 

"This mortal must put on immortality." — / Corinth- 
ians x<v, 53. 

Grant that the universe is the product of a 
supreme, originating intelligence, and Job's 
query must be answered in the affirmative. 
Given God, with the attributes of righteous 
Deity, and belief in the immortality of the soul 
is a necessity. Eternal life is not simply a doc- 
trine ; it is an essential part of the divine nature. 
The creation of man "in the image of God" 

254 



Immortality 



marks him a minor divinity and makes him im- 
mortal. We might rest the matter here — it is 
enough. By divine fiat man bears the likeness 
of God. There is no more reason why we 
should assay to prove the natural man immortal 
than that we should undertake to demonstrate 
that the same man is rational. 

Immortality is not merely a dogma of the 
Church, and it does not rest solely on the teach- 
ing of the Christian Scriptures. It is firmly 
grounded in the human constitution and inex- 
tricably Interwoven with the innermost con- 
sciousness of being. It is naturally a part of re- 
ligion. The belief in life after death has ex- 
isted where the Christian Church and the Bible 
have never been known or accepted. Plato be- 
lieved in a future state, and Socrates taught the 
doctrine of the immortal life. Mankind uni- 
versally and In all ages have had some idea of 
existence beyond the grave in some heaven, Ely- 
sian field, or happy land. Only blighting ra- 
tionalism and benumbing satiety can render one 

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indifferent to the destiny of his soul. Pitiful 
and tragic beyond the power of words is the 
weakening faith in a divine universe ordered 
with an ethical purpose, which pretends to argue 
that man is not free from the law that affects 
all the lower forms of life. 'Woe to the age 
steeped in luxury and wallowing in wealth, 
which, having lost its finer enthusiasms and 
forward-reachings of the soul, settles down to 
a glorification of its own power and throws 
to the winds its inheritance of ennobling and 
inspiring religious beliefs." Its doom is as cer- 
tain as that of ancient Rome, which tottered and 
reeled and staggered and fell down through 
sensuality to destruction. 

It is difficult for a soul to rid itself of the 
feeling and to school itself out of the belief that 
there is a beyond, something farther on and 
farther up than the life it now is living. Its 
very sense of present incompleteness indicates 
that it has limits which can not be set in cal- 
culable spaces ; that it is a spark of the Infinite. 

256 



Immortality 



It is easy to agree with Aristotle that the some- 
thing within us that feels, thinks, desires, and 
animates, is celestial, divine, and consequently 
imperishable. We do not wonder that Cicero, 
contemplating the marvelous possibilities of the 
human soul, declared: *'When I consider the 
wonderful activity of the mind, so great a mem- 
ory of what is past, and such a capacity for pene- 
trating into the future; when I behold such a 
number of arts and sciences, and such a multi- 
tude of discoveries thence arising, I believe and 
am firmly persuaded that a nature that contains 
so many things within itself can not but be im- 
mortal." 

Man's immortality is suggested by his do- 
minion. He is ruler by divine right over earth 
and sky and sea. His genius knows no bounds. 
He handles powers which he little understands. 
He adapts, combines, and within certain limi- 
tations creates. He subdues kingdoms and 
works righteousness and reigns in the realm of 
virtue. No such power is delegated to the crea- 
17 257 



Quality Folks 



tures of a day. God loves man because man is 
like Him, and God's present care for man is pre- 
sumptive proof of immortality. It is unthink- 
able that the Lord would order man's steps, 
number the hairs of his head, pity him with a 
father's care, make him an angel's charge, bear 
him up with wings as of eagles, and then say at 
the end of the earthly career, '*Thy end is noth- 
ingness and thy fate annihilation." To deny 
immortality makes God irrational. The world 
Itself is not wasteful, but salvatory. In the 
midst of apparent decay everything is climbing 
up and marching on. Man builds his houses to 
outlast a lifetime, and hands on his treasure 
from generation to generation. God would not 
endow a man with the accumulated treasures of 
a thousand years only to dissolve him in death 
and blast him in extinction. 

Man's immortality is implied in the un- 
timely events that mark the limits of his un- 
finished work. Think you when a brilliant 
scholar is obliged to lay down his pen on the 

258 



Immortality 



page of a half-written volume that his work is 
done! Nay, the curtain has only dropped be- 
tween us and him; it can not be that he is not 
working still. Man dies with his faculties un- 
developed. His reason, imagination, conscience, 
love, need a second Summer for bloom and 
fruitage. This is what Victor Hugo meant when 
on his death-bed he said: **For half a century I 
have been writing my thoughts in prose, verse, 
history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, 
satire, ode, and song. I have tried all, but I 
feel that I have not said the thousandth part of 
what is in me. When I go down to the grave 
I can say that I have finished my day's work, 
but I can not say that I have finished my life. 
The nearer I approach death the clearer I hear 
around me the immortal symphonies of the 
world about me. My work is only beginning. 
My thirst for the Infinite proves infinity." 
There seems to be an instinct of immortality In 
man which grows into an experience as the soul 
draws near the portals of the spirit-world. 

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Quality Folks 



Lord Byron testified that he felt his immortality 
oversweep his pains, his time, his fears, and 
peal like the eternal thunders of the deep into 
his ears the truth — Thou livest forever. The 
very fact that man has a desire for immortality 
proves his capacity for it. The heart craves 
eternal life. Life is discontented with time and 
is restless in the possession of treasure. It 
thirsts. It hungers. It is dissatisfied with sense, 
earth, space. It craves immortality. Emerson 
says, '*Our dissatisfaction with any other solu- 
tion is the blazing evidence of immortality." 

Man's immortality is established in the res- 
urrection of Christ. If the resurrection Is a fact, 
then life after death is a certainty. The evi- 
dence of the resurrection is trustworthy and con- 
clusive. Paul states that the risen Lord was seen 
by Cephas, the twelve, by five hundred breth- 
ren at once (the majority of them being alive 
at the time he made the statement and could 
have denied the truth of it had they chosen) , by 
James, by all the apostles, and last of all by 

260 



Immortality 



himself. His citations ought to be strong 
enough to establish the fact in any reasonable 
mind. If Jesus lived after what men call death, 
then I shall live. If this be true, then the re- 
sponsibility is on me to live not only for time, 
but also for eternity. I must remember that the 
hereafter is the after here ; life beyond the grave 
is only a continuation of the present journey 
without the ''impedimenta." The hereafter Is 
separated from the here only by a narrow vale 
of darkening mists. O Easter joy! break 
through the blackness. O clouds ! roll back and 
let me see what is beyond. O Easter faith ! let 
me catch a glimpse of daybreak when the 
shadows flee away. 



261 



THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS 

" The Babe lying in a manger."— 5/* Luke it, t6. 

" All history is incomprehensible without Christ." 

— Renan* 

** A little child shall lead them.'*— Isaiah xi, 6. 

" As little as humanity will ever be without religion, as 
little will it be without Christ." — Strauss^ 

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good- 
will toward men."— 5^. Luke ii, 14. 

In an evening paper on the Saturday before 
Christmas I read a statement to the effect that 
certain entertainments had been given in the 
public schools of a certain city the day before. 
The article was headed '^Christmas Exercises," 
with the following descriptive sub-line, ''Enter- 
tainments given at the Schools in Honor of 
Yuletide." The writer had inadvertantly borne 
testimony to the mixing of ideas in our modern 
Christmas celebrations. 

I saw a father buying a Christmas tree, and 

262 



The Heart of Christmas 



a woman a wreath of holly, and a young girl a 
sprig of mistletoe, and I heard a lady say how 
many presents she had tied up. I read that 
Santa Claus would entertain in a store-window, 
that a great chorus was to sing ''The Coming 
of the King," that half a hundred prophets 
would preach on Christmas, and as many 
Churches would treat the children to nuts and 
candy and books. A lot of different ideas, 
surely! We are told that the ancients cele- 
brated ''the return of the sun," when the days 
began to lengthen after the winter solstice; that 
the Romans reveled in a feast they called "The 
Saturnalia," at the same time of the year; that 
"Yule" was in celebration of the god Thor; 
that mistletoe was an emblem of the British 
Druids; that the Christmas tree is a native of 
Germany; Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas of 
Holland, and that the plum-pudding is a crea- 
tion of the English. In the presence of this 
conglomerate aggregation of conflicting ideas 
one may well ask. What does Christmas mean ? 

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Quality Folks 



It seems to mean buying and selling, giving and 
feasting; holly and mistletoe, tinsel and ever- 
green ; singing and Santa Claus, masses and yule- 
tide; toys and teddy bears, and exchanging of 
presents. But deeper than all the accretions of 
ages is the true heart of Christmas — the Babe 
in a manger. 

With the emphasis placed on gnomes and 
sprites and the mixing of pagan Ideas with the 
advent of the King, the world is in danger of 
forgetting that the heart of Christmas is Christ, 
and not Santa Claus. Parents may find enough 
of the miraculous in the story of the birth and 
life of Jesus to satisfy the imagination of any 
child without resorting to heathen mythology. 
The sentiments surrounding the life of the Sav- 
ior are refined and religious, while those in con- 
nection with Santa Claus are crude and super- 
stitious. 

Christmas has no meaning without the man- 
ger-Babe. You may have a Saturnalia or Yule 
or Bacchanalian revel, but you can not have 

264 



The Heart of Christmas 



Christmas and leave Christ out. It is the birth- 
day anniversary of the infant Lord, and its heart 
is a child, and not a *'teddy bear." A child's 
playthings should suggest beauty rather than 
beastliness. The perfection of human nature 
must always lie in its likeness to childhood. 

Christmas-giving is suggested by the fact 
that God gave His Son to the world to be its 
Savior. We are to imitate Him and give. The 
very heart of Christmas Is a gift. Too much of 
the passing about of presents has no love in it. 
There is a difference between a gift and an ex- 
change. One may give many gifts, but he never 
truly keeps Christmas until he is willing to re- 
ceive from God the gift of peace and give him- 
self to a worthy life. Every gift must be a 
symbol of the ^'Unspeakable Gift." Christmas 
IS in honor of the infant Christ. It is not Yule- 
tide : it is Christide. He who would know the 
heart of Christmas must know the heart of 
childhood. God's gift to thee is life eternal; 
thine to Him is service. 

265 



GAINS AND LOSSES 

"There is a time to get and a time to lose." — Ecdesi- 
asies iii, 6» 

" Sometimes the best gain is to lose." — Herbert* 

** In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of ad- 
versity consider."— £'cc/e5r'a5/e5 ^ii, 14* 

" Evil events come from evil causes ; and what we suf- 
fer, springs generally from what we have done." — Aristoph- 
anes* 

"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul ?" — St* Ma.tthe<TX) x^i, 26* 

" Tho' the path be rough and thorny 
Bravely bearing up the cross, 
We shall find as on we journey, 
All is gain and nothing loss." 

Elihu, in the drama of Job, about to re- 
prove his aged friends, says, "Days should 
speak.'* Days do speak. You may burn the 
calendar of the old year and hang up a fancy 
new one in its place ; but in the revolving series 
of days and weeks gone by there are some sea- 

266 



Gains and Losses 



sons so marked that they continue to speak and 
their voices refuse to be stilled. The old year, 
"being dead, yet speaketh." It speaks of gains 
and losses, of crowns and crosses. It is vocal 
with strains which run the gamut of the soul's 
emotions. It has notes of joy and measures of 
sorrow, tones of lamentation and scores of re- 
joicing. Listen! The dying year is speaking. 

When we were children we all had an un- 
questioned belief in the possibility of literally 
**turning over a new leaf." On the last evening 
of the year we retired with a feeling that the old 
was finished, its record closed, and that on the 
morrow a new year would arrive holding in its 
hand the most unsullied joy and pleasure. The 
old self seemed to die with the old year; but 
alas! It was only seeming. The same old self 
stands upon the threshold of the new and enters 
its portals amid the reverberating echoes of the 
days already numbered. 

The days of the past are saying different 
things to different souls, but to all their voice is 

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Quality Folks 



speaking. The record is written; the book is 
closed; but I am not done with the record nor 
the book. How do I know? The days have 
told me so. Before we close the book it is, 
therefore, fitting that we should turn the leaves 
and look again at the record. Our attitude to- 
ward past failure and success will largely deter- 
mine the meaning of the new year to us. 

The wise man in a very pessimistic passage 
utters the fatalistic statement, **There Is a time 
to get and a time to lose." We may not agree 
with his philosophy, but we shall surely admit 
the fact that each life has both times of gain 
and times of loss. Days of gain are days of re- 
joicing. The world shouts its acclamations for 
the victor whose hands are full of gains. Days 
of loss are days with sleepless nights. The 
stern law of the survival of the fittest makes no 
place for the vanquished loser. Each experience 
has its own lesson for the soul that wills to learn 
it. Unbroken prosperity has a tendency to 
make one selfish in his rejoicing. The measure 

268 



Gains and Losses 



of man's value is found in his conduct in the 
day of loss. 

There is really only one gain and only one 
loss. To have laid up a little treasure in heaven 
Is really the only gain ; to have fallen below the 
requisites for citizenship in the Kingdom is re- 
ally the only loss. You have gained if you have 
profited by your experiences, whether of pros- 
perity or adversity. You have lost if you have 
sacrificed your honor, your integrity, or your 
virtue. You have gained even if you failed 
while doing your level best. You have lost 
even though you won by chicanery and fraud. 
You have gained if all you did was to stand 
unflinchingly for the right. You have lost if 
you sacrificed principle to be with the crowd. 
What have been your gains or losses ? Are you 
climbing higher or slipping back? He who 
loses heaven loses all, though he gain the world 
besides. 



269 



DEC 3 1908 



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